A statement by Tom Levitt MP:

Today (1 July 2009) is the deadline for MPs to declare their income from all sources and how much time they spend earning money outside Parliament. The register will be published shortly. I welcome this new transparency which will reveal which MPs spend most time away from the concerns of Parliament, government or constituents.

I have submitted a ‘nil return’.

I have no income from employment other than my salary as an MP. If I were to have a second job I could not do the 60 to 70 hours work each week that I presently commit to all facets of my work. MPs who earn tens of thousands of pounds doing jobs outside Parliament cannot be doing justice to either their employer or their electors. Whilst it is right for MPs to have interests outside Parliament, as well as having a non-Parliamentary background, it is cynical and wrong to accept thousands of pounds for a few hours of work each year, as some do.

Needless to say, I am confident that the register will show that the worst offenders are Conservative MPs whose lucrative directorships indicate a cynical disregard of their electors’ priorities.

For the record, I hold two unpaid positions outside Parliament. I am the Chair of Trustees of the Community Development Foundation. This is a government appointment although CDF is both a non-departmental public body and a charity. My work for CDF takes 5 or 6 days in total each year. Gordon Brown referred to this work in Parliament this week. I am also the patron of a student volunteering charity, Read International, which builds links between schools and universities in Britain and schools in Tanzania. This work has involved up to two days per year, to date.

I occasionally complete questionnaires for market research or polling organisations which often pay a fee of £25 or £50. This is usually directed to a local or national charity. Even though I am not the personal beneficiary of these payments the new rules rightly require me to declare them so from 1 July I will be doing so.