Gavin Williamson turned down the offer of a second job at a fake South Korean firm – unlike many of his fellow Tory colleagues.
The former education secretary hung up abruptly on a call after he was pressed on fees and whether he would be happy to arrange meetings with senior officials.
Matt Hancock, Kwasi Kwarteng and Sir Graham Brady are all among a long list of Conservative politicians who made their services available.
Downing Street has insisted that the current rules on MPs’ second jobs “strike the right balance” after videos showed MPs offering to advise a fake Korean company for up to £10,000 a day.
One minister acknowledged the footage was “pretty unedifying” even if no rules were broken, after a sting by the campaign group duped the former chancellor and former health secretary into an interview with a bogus company.
In the video, Hancock said that his daily rate for external consultancy was £10,000, while Kwarteng indicated to a fake employee of the pretend outfit that his monthly rate for such an advisory position would be no less than five figures.
Kwarteng went on to suggest he could “work with” the firm’s offer of paying him between £8,000 and £12,000 for each of the six annual meetings of its non-existent international advisory board.
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