• Sir Geoffrey Cox earned up to £110,000 defending former Cayman Islands premier
• Was paid £355 an hour for eight weeks work for firm representing McKeeva Bush
• In periods he was paid by the firm, he made just one  speech in the Commons

By Tom Witherow From The Daily Mail UK

Sir Geoffrey Cox earned up to £110,000 defending the controversial former premier of the Cayman Islands in a high profile corruption trial.

The Tory MP is at the centre of the row over second jobs after this paper revealed he used Covid rules to vote in Parliament from the British Virgin Islands.

It has now emerged Sir Geoffrey, 61, was paid £355 an hour for eight weeks’ work for the Cayman Islands law firm that represented then opposition leader McKeeva Bush.

In the periods he was paid by Travers, Thorp, Alberga, he made one speech of just 46 words in the Commons, bolstering critics’ claims that he is an absentee MP.+2

In total Sir Geoffrey (pictured) earned £820,000 between December 2012 and October 2014 for 1,552 hours of work as a barrister – equivalent to almost ten months of work

In the 2014 trial, Sir Geoffrey successfully defended Bush against claims he used his government credit card to withdraw $50,000 in casinos in the US and the Bahamas.

Bush had been charged with 11 counts of official misconduct and breach of public trust, and had been removed from office. But he was acquitted after Sir Geoffrey argued he was the subject of ‘a cynical plot of breathtaking proportions’ at the hands of a British-appointed official pursuing a ‘personal vendetta’.

The MPs’ register of interests showed Sir Geoffrey earned £110,000 working for the firm between July and August 2013, and July and October 2014. It is not known whether all 310 hours were devoted to Bush’s case, but the payments all fall within the period between Bush being charged in March 2013 and his acquittal in October 2014.

In total Sir Geoffrey earned £820,000 between December 2012 and October 2014 for 1,552 hours of work as a barrister – equivalent to almost ten months of work.+2

It has now emerged Sir Geoffrey, 61, was paid £355 an hour for eight weeks’ work for the Cayman Islands law firm that represented then opposition leader McKeeva Bush (pictured)

He faced harsh criticism in 2018 for defending tax havens without declaring that he had earned thousands working for law firms in the Cayman Islands.

Bush has faced a litany of allegations of corruption, assault and sexual assault. Last December he was handed a suspended sentence for a ‘shameful’ drunken assault on a woman, captured on CCTV. It led to calls for him to resign as speaker of the Caymanian parliament.

In 2017 he was investigated for battery after allegedly groping a female employee at a Florida casino.

The charges were later dropped.

In a statement yesterday Sir Geoffrey said he regularly works 70-hour weeks and always ensures his constituents’ casework is given primary importance and fully carried out.

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