Six days on from the botched vote on the Owen Paterson case, the bad headlines for the government over lobbying, influence and second jobs rumble on.

The case of Sir Geoffrey Cox is certainly an eye-opening one. A top-flight QC as well as MP for Torridge and West Devon, he declared an income of more than £900,000 from legal work in the past year – around £400,000 of it from legal work representing the British Virgin Islands in an inquiry into suspected corruption launched by the Foreign Office.

Eye-watering sums, yes. Trips to the sunshine tax haven when the rest of the country was in lockdown? Not a great look, perhaps, but all within the rules.

But today pictures have emerged of him dialling in to a video hearing in that inquiry from what appears to be his Commons office, in mid-September.

The division bell – which calls MPs for votes – rings and he excuses himself.

That day, he voted in person for the government’s controversial national insurance rise, and it does not appear as if he was closely following the debate.

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Sir Geoffrey has only spoken in one parliamentary debate in 19 months since he lost his cabinet role as attorney general in February 2020.

Boris Johnson’s spokesman made a pointed remark yesterday that MPs are expected to be “visible in their constituencies” in a sign support is sapping away from him.

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, confirmed clearly to Sky News this morning with a “no” that MPs are indeed not allowed to use their Commons offices for other work, and that the case had been referred to the relevant authorities.

Labour have seized on the footage as a “brazen” apparent breach of the rules, although such a breach would normally, without the wider context of a row about MPs’ conduct, just merit an apology.

Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who chairs the standards committee, said he could not comment on a case which had just been referred to the commissioner but that when Owen Paterson – who did the same thing – protested that the company he worked for did not have a London office, he was given short shrift.

The government is in a tricky spot over second jobs. Many MPs have them.

Indeed Mr Javid, during the period on the backbenches before becoming health secretary, earned £320,000 from 24 days work as an adviser to JP Morgan, a Californian company C3.ai and a speech to an investment bank. He has since given up those roles

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Boris Johnson, as foreign secretary, earned £275,000 writing columns for The Daily Telegraph – although he spoke frequently in parliament.

And Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer did outside legal work while an MP in 2015-16, including advising the government of Gibraltar, before he was appointed to the shadow cabinet.

Some MPs suspect a reckoning is coming – not on banning second jobs, which is not the route the government want to go down, but perhaps more restrictions on paid directorships, which raise the risk of lobbying.

What’s clear is the debacle over Owen Paterson‘s suspension has significantly widened the net.

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