“Can she legitimately claim to be left-wing when she’s married to a banker,” I found myself wondering the other day as I listened to a legal aid lawyer tell me of her horror at the impending funding cuts.
Certainly, she enjoys the benefits of her husband’s fat salary. And it was bankers, let’s not forget, who brought about the financial crisis that made all the cuts necessary in the first place.
Nick Clegg, who is married to big-earning City lawyer Miriam Gonzalez (pictured), suffers a similar credibility problem, having last week demanded that all MPs disclose their tax returns while insisting that his wife’s earnings are her business only.
Not that it’s hard to find out what sort of money Gonzalez pulls in. Profit per equity partner at her law firm, Dechert, stands at £1.3 million. While Gonzalez, who is head of the firm’s London-based EU Trade and EU Government Affairs practice, won’t be earning quite that much (such sums are reserved for the US firms’ top home-based partners), she is reported to be on well in excess of £500,000...