'MANY MPs can easily double their £28,970 salary by taking on lucrative consultancies and directorships, according to a book, MPs for Hire, to be published on Monday…
    The book by television researcher, Mark Hollingsworth, says the largest number of directorships were held by Lord Rippon…  MPs are not required to disclose the salaries or director fees on the register of interests… 
    Mr Hollingsworth concludes: "To what extent a hired MP can directly initiate, change or repeal legislation is very difficult to evaluate.  The real issue is that many MPs have placed 'for sale' signs against their names.  By accepting payments from outside bodies, they are subverting democracy when they are supposed to be its custodians." '

Taken from an article entitled 'Double-pay bonanza outside the House', written by David Hencke and published in The Guardian on 27 September 1991.  The article trails the publication of Hollingsworth's book on Conservative MPs' outside interests 'MPs for hire'.

'...a Conservative MP, who has a directorship and three consultancies, was asked by a Channel 4 programme whether he should declare how much he earns from his outside business interests.  "That's a matter between me and the Inland Revenue, he replied dismissively"  …
…  It is this potential conflict of loyalties between an MP's private financial interests and his or her public duties that undermines confidence in our democracy…'

Taken from the introduction to Hollingsworth's second book on Conservative MPs' outside interests, entitled 'A Bit on the Side', published on 4 April 1994.

'AN official investigation has started into allegations that Mohamed Al Fayed paid £10,000 for copies of stolen documents which gave him advance warning of the lines of questioning he would face in his libel battle with Neil Hamilton…
    An associate of Al Fayed, Mark Hollingsworth, last night admitted he handed over the material and accepted the cash during a clandestine meeting at the Egyptian tycoon's Harrods store.  Al Fayed was so delighted that he promised another £10,000 for further material.  It gave Al Fayed 'a bit of a steer' into what he would be asked by Hamilton's lawyer, said Hollingsworth…
    The papers were initially taken by Benjamin Pell…  Pell passed the documents to Mark Hollingsworth, a freelance writer with close links to Al Fayed.  Hollingsworth set up a meeting at Harrods…  Al Fayed joined the meeting and appeared intrigued and pleased by the delivery of the papers.  Hollingsworth said last night that he was given £10,000 and was told that he would get a further £10,000 for any additional papers…  He insisted last night that he passed all the money to Pell…  Pell, however, claimed last night that he was paid only £5,000…  After the case, Hollingsworth admits he met with Al Fayed and asked for more cash…'

Taken from the Mail on Sunday of 13 February 2000, reporting how Hollingsworth had sold to Fayed, for £10,000 cash, reams of draft cross examination documents left in waste sacks for secure disposal outside the chambers of Hamilton's barristers, but taken by Benjamin 'the binman Pell.  Pell later alleged that he had taken the waste sacks at the request of David Leigh - The Guardian's comment editor and Hollingsworth's longstanding friend from their days together at the Observer between 1987 and 1988.

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