MEMBERS of David Cameron’s frontbench team are rushing to give up lucrative second jobs before a July 1 deadline, when they will have to declare the millions of pounds they earn from “moonlighting”.

Six senior Tories told The Sunday Times they had either quit or were planning to quit consultancies and directorships. Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, David Gauke, the Treasury spokesman, and David Evennett, the junior universities spokesman, are likely to meet the July 1 deadline and thus avoid the need to declare their earnings from second jobs Francis Maude, shadow Cabinet Office minister, David Willetts, the universities spokesman, and Gregory Barker, shadow environment minister, also indicated they would give up their second jobs. But they will not achieve this by July 1 and will have to make at least one set of declarations of their earnings and specify the number of hours they spend on second jobs.

The Sunday Times has found that members of Cameron’s team earned at least £2.7m on top of their annual MPs’ salaries of £64,766 and expenses.

The total earnings of the Tory front bench are believed to be considerably higher: 40 members of Cameron’s top team have second jobs, including about 10 who have directorships of hedge funds, which they declined to discuss.

The new regulations, forced through by Gordon Brown, have considerable potential to embarrass the Tories. A Conservative source said: “There is a real fear that this issue could be at least as big as the second home scandal. When we are forced to reveal details like our hourly rates and the amount of time taken by these jobs there is going to be trouble.”

Part-time MPs with outside interests could be paid at a lower rate than “full-timers”. The move, which would hit Tory MPs disproportionately hard, has been proposed by the head of the Review Body on Senior Salaries.

At present, less than £700,000 of Tory frontbenchers’ earnings are itemised on the register of members’ interests, which obliges MPs to say how much they are paid for jobs only if directly linked to their parliamentary roles. Maude disclosed that he would relinquish his three directorships, including roles in Barclays’ Asian division, a US technology company and a marketing firm. Willetts said he planned to step down from an £80,000-a-year role advising Punter Southall, a pensions company, in the run-up to the election. Shapps is to quit as chairman of the printing firm he founded 20 years ago, from which he is believed to have received a six-figure annual fee. Gauke has stepped down as a director of Ivobank, the internet bank. Evennett will stop receiving payments for “administrative assistance” from his mother on June 30. Barker, a close friend of Cameron, has also told this newspaper that he is to quit a £40,000-a-year job with Pegasus Capital Advisors, a US private equity firm.

All these interests are declared on the register but the earnings were not always detailed. Barker is one of many high-ranking Tories considering setting up a blind trust, which would shield the politicians from potential conflicts of interest. The assets in the trust are never made public.

Guidance on blind trusts is also being sought by Willetts and Philip Hammond, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, who has received £2.7m in dividends from his property company in the past three years.

Last week Andrew Mitchell, another member of the shadow cabinet, announced he was stepping down from his day job at Lazard, the investment bank, where he was thought to be paid several hundred thousand pounds a year. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, is giving up a series of jobs that have netted him about £230,000 over the past year.

John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, is tabling a resolution at Labour’s autumn party conference calling for a ban on MPs taking second jobs. “It’s not just that this moonlighting steals time from constituents. It raises the prospect of conflicts of interest,” he said.

John Bercow, MP for Buckingham, earns an annual fee of up to £40,000 from a holding company based in the Cayman Islands for work he does for the Priory Group, the health company known for its rehabilitation centres. Some companies send their earnings offshore to minimise their tax liability.

A spokesman for Bercow said: “The Priory Group is a UK-based company which pays all UK taxes when due, including corporation tax. It operates within UK law and files appropriate accounts with HM Revenue & Customs.”

Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, declined to discuss his directorships, which net him £130,000 per year. Oliver Letwin declined to discuss his role at NM Rothschild, the banking group.

On the Labour side, Patricia Hewitt, the former health secretary, earns £185,000 from three outside directorships.

Additional reporting: Helen Brooks

Tories’ nice little earners

Francis Maude, the shadow cabinet office minister, earns £27,000 a year as chairman of a marketing firm, £32,000 from a US technology company and sits on a Barclays advisory committee. He says he will relinquish all three roles

David Willetts, the shadow universities secretary, earns £80,000 a year as an adviser to Punter Southall, a pensions company. He says he will drop the role in the run-up to the general election

Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, will step down as head of his own printing company in time to avoid disclosing his earnings. He is believed to be paid more than £100,000 for the role

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