SIR – The recent media attention surrounding ex- Foreign Secretaries, Conservative, Malcolm Rifkind and Labour’s Jack Straw has once again brought into focus the question of MPs seeking to make money from outside constituency work. David Cameron, who has the largest number of MPs with outside interests and consultancies made his position clear. He is opposed to any ban on MPs having outside jobs and interests.

It’s certainly the case that someone who has experience of work BEFORE becoming an MP, can use that in their position representing their constituents, and are perhaps all the better for it. But, do they really have the time with all their work as an MP, if they’re doing the job properly, to take on extra outside work?

Commonly, MPs’ extra work centres around consultancies and directorships of companies. But wouldn’t it give them more genuine understanding of what the lives of ordinary people are like if they drew on more down-to-earth ‘experiences’ eg working in the Citizens Advice Bureau, an NHS hospital, a state school, or a charity like ‘Shelter’ dealing with homelessness etc?

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose