Fishburn gets his Barings

COLIN BROWN

Chief Political Correspondent

Dudley Fishburn said last night that one of the reasons he was leaving the House of Commons was to take up a post as a director with Barings Bank.

The bank, rescued by the ING group after being brought down by Nick Leeson's speculative dealings in Singapore, has appointed Mr Fishburn as a director of a multi-million-pound fund dealing with investments in the former Soviet Union. His appointment is likely to further infuriate Labour MPs, incensed at Mr Fishburn's remarks about standing down because MPs had too little to do.

The Tory MP for Kensington last night stood by his belief that the creation of more seats through boundary changes to produce 659 MPs at the next general election could not be justified.

Figures supplied by the Commons show that MPs are meeting as often as they did in Baroness Thatcher's day, but they are getting home earlier. The reform of members' hours has cut the number of hours after 10pm from 235 hours in 1991-2 to 149 this year.

The number of sittings days has stayed roughly the same at 158, but the number of select committee sittings has soared from 640 to 860. Over the past five years, the pay bill for MPs has risen from pounds 57.6m to pounds 73.4m. The total cost of running the Commons has risen from pounds 140m to pounds 196m.

Mr Fishburn said he did not believe commerce was becoming more attractive to Tory MPs than the Commons. "I had 10 years in public service, but I think it is mistake to believe that everyone has to stay forever."

Mr Fishburn has already six directorships listed in the register of members' interests, including posts with an insurance company, the HFC Bank. David Winnick, the Labour MP, said MPs were leaving the Commons because they could not win their seats after the boundary changes.

Andrew Marr, page 13