Former cabinet minister and Suffolk MP Matt Hancock told a fake company his daily rate for consultancy would be £10,000.

In a sting operation set up by campaign group Led By Donkeys, Mr Hancock set out six-figure sums for what he would expect to be paid to advise a non-existent firm in South Korea.

There is no accusation of wrongdoing, with MPs permitted to seek employment outside of Parliament.

Mr Hancock, asked whether he had a daily rate during an online “interview”, said: “I do, yes. It is 10,000 sterling.”

The West Suffolk MP and former health secretary later said he had an hourly rate of “around £1,500”.

A spokesperson for Mr Hancock said: “The accusation appears to be that Matt acted entirely properly and within the rules, which had just been unanimously adopted by Parliament.

“It’s completely untrue to suggest any wrongdoing and therefore absurd to bring Mr Hancock into this story through the illegal publication of a private conversation.

“All the video shows is Matt acting completely properly.”

Labour accused Tory MPs of using “their taxpayer funded offices to line their own pockets”, calling the behaviour “shameful”.

Led By Donkeys, an anti-Brexit group, created a sham company called Hanseong Consulting, setting up a website and paying for a so-called “fake virtual office” in the South Korean capital Seoul.

It approached 20 MPs from different parties asking if they would join the phoney firm’s international advisory board.

Five are said to have progressed to an online interview stage, including Mr Hancock and four Tories: former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, former minister Stephen Hammond and chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady.

MPs are permitted to have second jobs on top of their role representing constituents but such opportunities have come under the spotlight in recent years following Owen Paterson’s suspension from the Commons for breaching lobbying rules in 2021.