UK lawmaker defends lucrative 2nd job as Johnson feels heat

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A British lawmaker is defending his 400,000-pound ($540,000) a year second job, as calls grow for a crackdown on politicians earning outside income. Conservative legislator Geoffrey Cox said Wednesday that his work as a lawyer did not take him away from representing constituents in the southwest England district he represents in Parliament. Cox has been under fire for earning several times his 82,000-pound ($110,000) politician’s salary doing legal work, including advising the government of the British Virgin Islands in a corruption inquiry. The focus on Cox’s income comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government battles allegations of corruption that were triggered when it tried to engineer a change in the system that oversees lawmakers’ standards.