Ex-minister Esther McVey broke rules on second jobs, revolving door watchdog says for the second time

• Esther McVey has broken rules on ex-ministers jobs again, the revolving door watchdog has said.
• The ex-housing minister denied her speech to a trade association was on how to lobby the government.

A former housing minister broke rules on jobs for a second time, the UK's revolving door watchdog has said, after she gave a £3,000 speech on how to lobby the government to a construction trade association.

Esther McVey left her government role in February 2020. UK rules stipulate that she had to apply to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) until February 2022 before taking up any appointments including with speakers' agencies.

But Insider revealed McVey had given a speech, paid through a speakers' agency, to the Council for Aluminium in Building on how to lobby the government. A summary of her speech after the event said she provided "an excellent range of hints, tips and tricks to get an industry message across to government, officials and the press."

Lord Eric Pickles, chair of ACOBA, wrote to Steve Barclay, Boris Johnson's chief of staff and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, informing him that McVey had breached the rules by failing to seek ACOBA's advice before signing up to the speaking agency.

In correspondence between Pickles and McVey, published Wednesday, McVey said she "did not speak about my [Department of Housing, Communities, and Local Government] role nor was it about lobbying. I had spoken with the organisers and changed the speaking event content to 'How to run a successful campaign' as a backbench MP."

But the head of the UK's professional lobbying association has told Insider that such a speech is "clearly advice on lobbying."

Francis Ingham, director general of the Public Relations and Communications Association, said: "This is clearly advice on lobbying. There is no other way to describe it. It is ludicrous to say otherwise.

"It's treating people as fools to pretend it's something else."

Ingham has previously criticised McVey's speech as "completely unethical."

Pickles, however, appears to have accepted McVey's explanation of the event, saying it "appears to me a minor breach in the circumstances."

The Conservative MP for Tatton previously failed to seek advice from ACOBA regarding her role as a presenter on GB News. Her husband, Conservative MP Philip Davies, is a regular co-presenter.

McVey also said that as it was the only speech she has given since leaving government it should "be classed as a one-off event", suggesting it was not necessary to consult ACOBA.

Her office did not respond to a request for comment.