From £0 to £36,790: How much are Sheffield MPs bringing in on top of their salary?

MPs earn £84,144 a year, a sum most of the population couldn’t even dream of, while ministers, whips, and others with more responsibilities earn even more. On top of that, they can claim generous expenses and work in a building with subsidised restaurants and bars.

It can be hard to understand why so many MPs take second jobs and exactly how much the people who run the country have coming in. On top of that, finding out details on individual MPs finances can be tricky.

Today, Sky News and Tortoise Media have launched Westminster Accounts, having crunched numbers from multiple sources to create a searchable database of every MP in the country.

So what have Sheffield’s MPs been earning and claiming on top of their £84 grand? Well, there’s quite the variety, spanning from £0 to £36,790.

Paul Blomfield (£0)

Paul Blomfield, MP for Sheffield Central, has not reported any income, donations or gifts at all since 19 December 2019.

Clive Betts (£800)

MP for Sheffield South East Clive Betts declared six financial interests since December 2019, from two sources; £500 from Ipsos Mori and £300 from Savanta ComRes, both market research companies.

Gill Furniss (£12,740)

Gill Furniss, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, has declared four financial interests since December 2019, the most eyebrow-raising of which is a gift worth £7,600 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar. This was for a “visit to meet ministers and officials to discuss Qatar's humanitarian and political response to the Afghanistan crisis, preparations for the World Cup, workers' rights reform and bilateral relations”, where she told The Times she had held “full and frank discussions with political leaders on their human rights record”.

On top of this, she took £3,140 in two donations from the Communication Workers Union and £2000 from union Unite.

Louise Haigh (£15,020)

Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley, has declared seven financial interests since December 2019.

These included gifts worth £2,280 from the Trades Union Congress for a visit to Madrid, £300 from Betfred – in the form of tickets to the snooker World Championship Final – and £300 from the Performing Rights Society.

She also received donations from unions Unite and GMB; the former donated a total of £7,500 and the latter £4,500.

Miriam Cates (£34,520)

Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge Miriam Cates’s financial interest declarations look rather different to those of her Labour colleagues.

Since December 2019, Cates has received gifts worth £2,000 from Conservative Friends of Israel in the form of a visit to Israel and the West Bank, and £1,490 from March of the Living UK for an “educational Holocaust programme to Poland and to attend the March”.

She has also earned £600 writing for website Unherd, £100 from Telegraph Media and £200 for a speech at National Club, “a private members club for Christians”.

Cates also received donations worth £5,000 from Stalbury Trustees, £2,000 from Anthony E Endfield, and £2,000 from RS Furbs. A printing company called Greens donated the equivalent of £700.

She also received a whopping £20,000 from The Cayzer Trust Company, a private investment firm.

Olivia Blake (£36,790)

Not to be outdone, Labour's Olivia Blake, MP for Sheffield Hallam, has declared nine financial interests since the end of 2019.

These include gifts worth £1,450 from Medical Aid for Palestinians for a trip to the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, £400 from Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, and £300 from the Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy Project for a visit to France.

The Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy Project also made three donations totalling £20,570 to Blake in return for a member of her staff providing research services. GMB Union offered donations worth £9,000, Unite £3,000 and the Fire Brigades Union £2,000.