- Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Cox has declared further earnings from his legal work at an hourly rate of £1393.
- Cox represented the British Virgin Islands government in a corruption inquiry.
- Cox was criticised for using proxy voting rules introduced in the pandemic to vote while in the Caribbean.
Sir Geoffrey Cox has disclosed a further £47,387.69 in earnings for his work on the corruption inquiry in the British Virgin Islands, new records show.
At an hourly rate of £1393.76, it would take Cox just 59 hours to earn his MP's salary. Cox represented the British Virgin Islands government in a corruption inquiry on the islands.
Cox, the highest-earning MP, registered 34 hours of work on the inquiry in September 2021, during which he took part in the inquiry remotely from his Parliamentary office as first revealed by The Times.
In November, Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, declined to open an investigation into whether Cox breached rules by doing his work for the inquiry from his Parliamentary office.
Labour alleged the former attorney general had "brazenly" broken the rules by using "a taxpayer-funded office in parliament to work for a tax haven facing allegations of corruption." Cox denied breaking any rules.
The BBC reported Stone decided there was insufficient evidence to justify an inquiry, and that the rules on the use of offices needed to be operated with a "sense of proportion."
Cox's office has been contacted for comment.