The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
South Holland and the Deepings MP Sir John Hayes has a new job as a part time professor at the University of Bolton.
Sir John says he is working with the University of Bolton to create a new post graduate course in politics.
He’ll be paid £38,000 a year for 20 to 30 hours’ work per month between April 1 this year to March 31, 2022, the MPs register of financial interests states.
It’s currently the third job he’s earning an income from on top of his constituency MP job.
Sir John says he was asked to help with the courses after being given an honorary doctorate for services to education by the University of Bolton last July and having previously made keynote speeches for them.
“I’m very proud to be setting up these courses in Bolton and it’s a great honour to be involved,” said Sir John, who has been the Conservative Member of Parliament for the area since 1997.
“I think they were looking to expand their postgraduate options and with the politics they asked if I could play my part.
“I’ve been helping to devise and establish new postgraduate courses.
“It’s a big task and I can do most of it from a distance so it won’t be eating into my parliamentary work.
“One the things that we’ve historically seen happen in situations like we find ourselves in is that people turn to academic learning.
“You look at the depression in the 1930s which saw an even bigger shock to the economy and one of the various growth areas subsequently was education as people looked to improve their learning.”
A spokesman for the University of Bolton said: “In conjunction with the Centre for Opposition Studies, the University of Bolton is in the process of developing a new series of postgraduate courses (Master’s Degrees and PhD provision).
“Sir John Hayes MP is now integral to the development of these courses, along with the director of the Centre for Opposition Studies to whom he reports for these duties.
“Their work aims to bring new additional income to the university from post graduate fees with commercial partners in the UK and overseas (which funds the ongoing costs of staff, including Sir John).
“They have been working closely over the past months creating the course structure in preparation for validation.
“The university always prefers to appoint staff with relevant work-based sector experience when entering new fields and Sir John, as a serving MP, has highly relevant expertise.”
On top of the university job and his MP’s wage of £79,468, Sir John also earns from two other jobs.
He earns £30,000 a year for between 40 and 50 hours work from the Highbury Burton Saudi Arabia (HBSA) which runs the International Technical Female College in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a wage that’s increased by £10,000 from May 2019.
Since September 1, 2018 he’s earned £50,000 a year for an estimated 80 to 90 hours as a strategic advisor to oil company BB Energy Trading.
A previous job Sir John held as a non-executive director of charitable foundation Esharelife ended in June 2019 after nearly six months. That foundation is chaired by Conservative donor Dr Maurizio Bragagni who donated Sir John £2,000 in January this year, the MPs Register of Interests states.
