WITH the election nearing, the battle to be the Cotswolds' next MP is heating up with one candidate criticising the incumbent for having a second job while in Parliament.

The current MP for the Cotswolds, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who will stand again in the election in May, has come under fire for raking in thousands of pounds from a second job at a farm based 200 miles away in Norfolk.

It has been revealed that he earned a total of £164,000 from August 2011 until July 2014 from his second job at the farm.

This was for a total of 105 days work, or 626 hours, and Mr Clifton-Brown’s average rate over this period was £4,450 per day or £742 per hour.

Parliamentary rules allow MPs to have a second job, and Mr Clifton-Brown declared all of his earning and time spent employed at the farm.

However, Paul Hodgkinson, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Cotswolds, believes Conservative Mr Clifton-Brown should give up his work on the arable farm.

Mr Hodgkinson, who currently runs his own business coaching firm, said: “Serving constituents full-time is in my opinion a basic requirement of being an MP. I don’t see how anyone can do the job properly if they are spending time earning substantial amounts elsewhere.

“There are so many things which need addressing locally – protecting our unique countryside, getting decent roads and services like phone coverage and fast broadband to name but some. To stand up for the Cotswolds on these issues demands total focus and if I am elected as MP in May I will be full time.

“I will close down my business and will take no other income from work outside Parliament. As a matter of principle I will be a full time MP concentrating only on that role and nothing else.

“I have challenged Mr Clifton-Brown to commit to taking no further earnings from outside Parliament but he declined.

Now that these latest figures have been published I ask him again - will he follow my lead in agreeing to being a full-time MP?”

But Mr Clifton-Brown, who has been MP for the Cotswolds since 1992, insisted his second job did not distract him from working for his constituents.

He said: “I ran the farm long before I became an MP in 1992 and it does not in any way impact on the work I do for the hard working people of my constituency.

“I was born and bred in East Anglia but the Cotswolds is now my home and it is where I intend to live until the end of my days.

“The work I do is in my very rare spare time and holidays and I think it’s important MPs have outside interests. I can now fully understand the concerns of farmers and anyone else running a business in my constituency.”

Follow the election battle at wiltsglosstandard.co.uk