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Ex-No11 adviser James Price accuses Angela Rayner of second-job hypocrisy

"Being an MP isn't a second job. It is the job. Labour will put an end to this racket."

So declared Angela Rayner in 2023, when the pressure group Led By Donkeys caught Conservative MPs auditioning for consultancy work.

She called it "beyond shameful". I am pleased to report that she has been as good as her word.

The racket was indeed dealt with for a time; Rayner herself managed to corner the market.

Asked on Sky News about the £105,250 she made from speeches during her ten months out of Government, the Housing Secretary was unrepentant.

"I don't consider that to have been a second job," she said, describing "around six engagements in 12 months for a couple of hours of speaking engagements," all declared appropriately.

Take her at her word. Six engagements at a couple of hours each is about a dozen hours of work.

That is £17,500 a speech, or nearly £9,000 an hour, by her own arithmetic.

Unlike 2023's Ange, I am entirely relaxed about MPs earning money on the side. Parliament is better, and its laws are better, when it contains people who know something of the world beyond it.

It is clearly worse when it is stuffed with people who have never had any experience of a job at a profit-making organisation.

Every minister moonlights by definition. The Prime Minister does being an MP as his second job, for goodness' sake.

If Angela Rayner can command £20,000 for two hours of her thoughts, good luck to her, and better luck still to whoever was moronic enough to pay her such sums.

The problem, as always with the Left, is the awe-inspiring levels of hypocrisy. Big Ange would be an Olympic gold medal winner were we to turn such moral duplicity into a sport.

First, tax. "Every pound of tax that is not delivered to the Exchequer damages our public services," she thundered in 2023, demanding a Conservative minister's head over his tax affairs.

She then underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat and eventually resigned in disgrace.

Second, property. Her own Government raised the stamp duty surcharge on second homes and let councils double their council tax, while she assembled a portfolio the tabloids christened "Three Pads".

Third, second jobs. There's £105,250 in speaking fees, a £76,500 advance for her memoir and £20,000 from the estate agents' lobby weeks before she was handed back the housing brief.

She has kept the £17,000 severance cheque she earned after quitting, too.

I'm sure every penny was declared in line with the rules, and she gave a small part of her hard-won gains – £15,000 – to charity.

But whether it's on tax, on housing, or on outside earnings, it's always one rule for thee, another for me.

Hypocrisy is the one interest she has never declared, and on current form, she never will.