George Osborne defends his appointment as editor of the Evening Standard and claims it will HELP Parliament
The former Chancellor - who also has five other roles including his job as an MP - said the Commons was "enhanced" by people taking other jobs
GEORGE Osborne has defended his appointment as editor of the Evening Standard and claimed it HELPS the House of Commons.
The former Chancellor said his new role - on top of his FIVE other jobs - would help him to bring "different experience" to matters of Parliament.
Not a single Tory MP in the 45-minute debate attacked Mr Osborne for taking up the post - which he is set to start in May.
Cabinet Minister Ben Gummer was this afternoon forced to defend the former Chancellor in an urgent question about his appointment.
He told MPs that he had "no doubt" that Mr Osborne would continue to be able to represent his constituents.
And he said that the independent body which scrutinises MPs second jobs - was yet to report back on what they thought of his new role.
Revealing Mr Osborne had applied for the job, Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev said he then became “the obvious choice” because of his “huge political achievement, and economic and cultural authority”.
Mr Osborne promised to listen to his colleagues in this afternoon's debate - but left as soon as the urgent question about him had finished.
He said: "In my view this parliament is enhanced when we have people of different experience take part in our robust debate and when people who have held senior ministerial office continue to contribute to the decisions we have to make."
And he joked: "When I heard that this urgent question had been granted I thought it was important to be here… although unfortunately we have missed the deadline for the Evening Standard."
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MPs lined up to slam the MP for Tatton for his decision to take up the role - which will occupy him for four days a week.
Labour's Andrew Gwynne said it "Deeply undermined public trust in the democratic process" and does a "disservice" to MPs who spend every hour fighting for their constituents.
Dennis Skinner stormed: "How can a full-time politician be a full time editor of a daily newspaper?"
The SNP's Roger Mullin said it was a "disgraceful shambles".
And Labour's Wes Streeting said he had no qualification for the role - and his appointment further eroded trust in the media and politicians.
Mr Osborne did write for The Times as a rookie hack back in the 90s - The Sun revealed last weekend.
But scores of Tories lined up to DEFEND Mr Osborne - including former cabinet colleague Michael Gove.
Mr Gove - who is also a columnist for The Times newspaper - said it was up to constituents to boot out Mr Osborne if they saw fit.
He added: "We believe in a free press and therefore that proprietors should have the right to appoint who they believe is right to be editor."
