Restore leader Rupert Lowe is the latest wealthy right-wing politician to play a familiar card: the martyr one. After a newspaper revealed he was on course to earn as much from posting anti-immigration rants on Elon Musk's X as he does as an MP, Lowe harrumphed, "If I wanted to make money I would not be in politics."
Since January, the former banker has trousered, on average, £932-an-hour by "monetising" his posts on X, thanks mainly to the notoriety he has garnered from, as he proudly puts it, "dragging mass deportations into mainstream politics."
Familiar Moans from Farage and Others
Nigel Farage made a similar claim in 2017, saying politics had left him "skint" — at a time when he belonged to an exclusive bank requiring "at least £1million in investments or £3million in savings," had two EU pensions, a five-figure radio presenter's salary and a £4million house in Chelsea.
Many MPs are not in it for the money, don't have outside jobs or snaffle up freebies, but many more make a cushy living out of their Westminster fame thanks to lucrative perks. They can earn fortunes from public speeches, advances on books, TV and radio appearances or sitting on company boards. Those elevated into the Lords can claim £371 every day for turning up.
Post-Office Earnings and Salary Rises
Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Boris Johnson filled their post-Downing Street boots with corporate gold, and Tony Blair's fortune is up there with the Middle Eastern sheikhs he breaks bread with. Like all former PMs, Liz Truss is guaranteed £115,000 a year for life to cover "office costs," even though she was barely in the No10 office long enough to open every drawer.
In her year out of the Cabinet, Angela Rayner earned £104,000 from public speaking and a £61,500 advance on a memoir. MPs' salaries put them in the top 4% of UK earners due to repeatedly voting for pay rises way higher than the norm.
Pay Rises Outpace Average Earnings
In 2012 an MP's salary was £65,738; today it's £98,599. That's a rise of £32,861 when UK average salaries went up by £12,539 over the same period. With more inflation-busting rises guaranteed, their salaries will rise to £110,000-a-year by the end of this parliament.
The least taxpayers deserve is that anyone who stands to be our MP should vow that representing our interests will be their only job — just as Rayner had previously called for. Otherwise, how can we not laugh in their faces when they say they're not in politics for the money, when it looks like that is exactly what they are in it for?
