Yorkshire MP and former cabinet minister Julian Smith to take up £3,000-per-hour new role

Skipton and Ripon’s Julian Smith had to provide information to the Government’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA), which regulates new jobs for former ministers and senior civil servants, on his new role due to his former position as a cabinet minister.

Conservative Mr Smith was Northern Ireland Secretary for 204 days between 2019 and 2020 and was praised for restoring power-sharing before he was sacked from the Cabinet by Boris Johnson in February.

Documents show that alongside his elected MP role, he will also now take on an advisory role at Ryse Hydrogen Limited, a manufacturer of hydrogen distribution.

Jo Bamford, the company’s chief executive, also owns Wrightbus - a Northern Irish bus production company - and had previously spoken publicly about his desire to get government funding to build up a fleet of hydrogen-powered buses.

But Mr Smith told the committee the role would not involve any contact with Government and Lord Pickles, chair of ACOBA, said the risk that Mr Smith had been offered the appointment based on decisions he had made in Government was low because any government funding for hydrogen-powered vehicles would not have been in his ministerial portfolio.

However Lord Pickles did advise Mr Smith that he should not give advice on any bidding for government money.

The Commons register of financial interests shows Mr Smith was paid £15,000 plus VAT for five hours of work for the company in July.

The register says he is expected to work 20 hours for the firm over the next year, and will be paid £60,000 plus VAT over that period.

Mr Smith joins Sajid Javid, who also left the Cabinet in February, in taking on a second job, with it being revealed this week that former chancellor Mr Javid had accepted a role with US banking giant JP Morgan.

The MP, who quit as chancellor earlier this year, has been appointed senior adviser on the bank’s advisory council for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The bank would not disclose Mr Javid’s salary, but confirmed it would be a paid position.

Mr Javid dramatically exited the Cabinet in February this year following a power struggle with the Prime Minister’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings.