Former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has acquired a job worth £100,000 a year in an advisory role to UK ports, including Felixstowe and Harwich.

Hutchison Ports, a subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings, is based in Hong Kong and counts the Port of Felixstowe amongst its worldwide assets, alongside ports in the Netherlands, Indonesia and Australia.

The register of MPs' financial interests maintained by Parliament shows that Grayling will be paid for seven hours' work per week over the next year.

A potential conflict of interest has been refuted by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, the parliamentary watchdog responsible for MPs' external business interests. Despite Grayling having 'had access to information that could be perceived to benefit Hutchison' in his role as Secretary of State for Transport, the Committee reasoned that 'much of this information would have related to the transport secretary generally, as opposed to specific information on the maritime sector and ports specifically.'

The MP for Epsom and Ewell will be bound by the watchdog not to lobby on behalf of the company in Parliament for commercial matters and joins the former Chancellor Sajid Javid, appointed a month ago to an advisory role at investment bank JP Morgan, as the latest MP to secure lucrative employment whilst serving in the Commons.

Grayling resigned from the Cabinet in July 2019 when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister after three controversial years in the Transport brief.

Perhaps most infamous was his decision to award tens of millions of pounds' worth of contracts to ferry operators Brittany Ferries and DFDS, in an attempt to ease pressure on the port of Dover in the event of a no-deal Brexit. A third company, Seaborne Freight, was awarded a £13.8m contract despite having never sailed a ship. The estimated cost incurred to the taxpayer amounted to £56.6m, according to the National Audit Office.

Grayling's tenure as Justice Secretary was also controversial, including the MP's proposal to win a contract advising the Saudi prison service, despite the Gulf State's poor human rights record.

The appointment comes after Felixstowe dockers were told they would not get their annual bonus and some asked to quit their jobs with a £10k pay off. Read here...