There has been a lot of bad press about Tory MP’s this week. Second jobs in The British Virgin Islands, paid lobbying on behalf of Covid contractors, and an attempt to rip up the standards bill to protect Owen Paterson.

Yet, whilst the media outlets have been all over this like a rash caused by an ill-fitting Burton suit, The Telegraph have been working on stories that really count. This week, whilst other national newspapers concentrated on trivial events (like Owen Paterson employer, Randox, receiving a £347 million Covid contract) The Telegraph were busily investigating one Mr Huw Edwards.

Jobs? It’s Two for Huw!

Edwards, 60, is the BBC evening news anchor. He is paid £430,000 a year for presenting the ‘Six ‘o’ clock News’. However, The Telegraph has discovered that Edwards, who is Welsh, has also been paid a whopping £10,000 for hosting The National Rail Awards.

In what is a sickening dereliction of duty and a clear breach of lobbying rules, it has since emerged that he allegedly told fellow presenter, Sophie Raworth, his journey to the studios was “Quicker by Train”. Another BBC executive has claimed that Edwards told weatherman, Chris Fawkes, he had, “A nice train journey in”, when they chatted before one evening broadcast.

By taking ten thousand pounds for hosting The National Rail Awards and then talking in a positive way about train journeys, Edwards is surely breaching BBC impartiality laws. This clear act of lobbying BBC employers makes all the corruption allegations about Tory MP’s look like one thing. A storm in a Westminster teacup.

Persecuted Tories

Edwards won’t be sacked because, apparently, he hasn’t done anything wrong. That means, as usual, it’s one rule for a newsreader who got paid to do an awards evening, and another for a Tory MP who took £900k to advise a tax haven on corruption allegations made by the British government.

It’s time to rip up the stupid standards bill, put Huw Edwards in prison, defund the BBC, and let these persecuted Tory MP’s get on with their second jobs! Otherwise, there will only one outcome.

They will leave the cruel world of politics.