A very widely shared post on Twitter, and several posts on Facebook, have claimed that Private Eye magazine reported that the former chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is being paid £20,000 a month to work as an adviser for a hedge fund.
This is not correct. Private Eye reported that Mr Kwarteng was paid to work for a hedge fund shortly after he was elected to Parliament in 2010—but did not say that he has continued to work for it since then, or that he was being paid £20,000 a month. The Private Eye story actually claimed that after becoming an MP in 2010, Mr Kwarteng “kept up his financial interests with a £20,000 side number for providing ’political advice’ to Odey Asset Management”, though we’ve not seen evidence to support this figure and it doesn’t appear to match the official record of Mr Kwarteng’s interests.
The House of Commons Register of Members’ Financial Interests shows that Mr Kwarteng registered in March 2011 that he would be paid “£10,000 on a half-yearly basis” for work as “Consultant to Odey Asset Management”, which would involve “giving political advice to asset managers in relation to international and domestic affairs”.
This was updated in September 2011 to say “Remuneration: £10,000. February to August 2011 only.” No further payments from Odey Asset Management to Mr Kwarteng appear in the register after that.
Private Eye said on Twitter that some of the social media commentary about its article was not correct.
We asked Private Eye why it reported the total as £20,000 instead of £10,000. It told us that £10,000 does appear to be the correct figure.
Mr Kwarteng’s office did not respond to a request for comment, and Odey Asset Management declined to comment.