MP attacks nuclear job ministers

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Two former Labour ministers are under fire over their links with the nuclear industry.

Former trade minister Ian McCartney has been appointed as an £115,000 a year adviser to US engineering giant Fluor.

Former sports minister Richard Caborn is considering a role with a group bidding for nuclear clean-up contracts, among other job offers.

Independent Labour MP Dai Davies has tabled a motion urging the pair to turn down the jobs as "inappropriate".

Mr Davies said he accepts MPs "often have rich experience to offer private sector firms" but he said they should not take up such jobs "so shortly after leaving the government".

Both men stood down as ministers when Tony Blair resigned as prime minister four months ago but continue to draw MPs salaries.

Contracts

Mr Caborn, MP for Sheffield Central, is reported to have been offered a non-excutive directorship worth nearly £100,000 a year with the trilateral partnership of nuclear firms Amec, Areva of France and the Washington Group from the US, according to Mr Davis' commons motion.

Mr Davies says the consortium is "keen to secure multi-million contracts for the clean-up of Sellafield".

Mr Caborn told BBC News the nuclear job was one of "a number" of consultancies he had been offered in different areas since leaving government. He said he had not accepted any of them yet.

Mr McCartney, MP for Makerfield, has listed his new job in the register of members' interests, which says he will earn between £110,000 and £115,000 as a consultant for Fluor.

A spokesman for Fluor told The Mail on Sunday the former Labour Party chairman was not involved in lobbying but had been hired as senior adviser to "provide advice in anticorruption and business ethics policies, regulatory issues and outside relations including trade unions".

Mr McCartney was not available for comment.

Nuclear plants

The US engineering giant already links with Labour and is a client of lobbying firm Sovereign Strategies, run by Alan Donnelly, former chairman of Labour's MEPs.

In his early day motion, Mr Davies says Fluor has "considerable interest in securing multi-million pound contracts with the UK nuclear industry".

The government is believed to be in favour of building a new generation of nuclear plants, subject to the outcome of a consultation.

It is not unusual for former ministers to take paid consultancy work on top of their Commons salaries, although there have been calls to ban the practice.