Members of the Shadow Cabinet will continue to be part-time. Why? Because they don’t want to lose the money and perks the outside jobs will bring them.

A month ago when this idea was first mooted in the press, I said:

Rather than banning them, making them subject to approval would be a better course of action – based on the amount of time they take, the potential for a conflict of interest to arise with regards to a Shadow Cabinet member’s portfolio, as well as more personal contexts. Alongside an understanding that by six months before a general election is expected, all outside appointments are dropped.

After all, if they want to be in the Shadow Cabinet and the likelihood of the Cabinet, then they need to be prepared to put the effort in.

And I think that should definitely be the case.

Frankly, any member of the Shadow Cabinet who refuses to reduce the number of their external roles and appointments to a manageable level should be sacked from the Shadow Cabinet rather than be given the opportunity to resign. Even if that figure is William Hague.

They are in the front line of politics; the people who should be pretty much expecting to be Cabinet ministers after the next general election. They should be developing policy and arguments, they should be opposing [when appropriate] government proposals in their area and offering well though out alternative suggestions – not lining their pockets.

Perhaps the reason why the Conservatives are not as far ahead in the polls as they were is because when an emergency strikes and the quick decisive development of policy across all government areas is required half of the Shadow Cabinet is busy elsewhere. And this has allowed the Conservatives to be characterised by Labour as the “do nothing” party.

In many ways, it comes down to Cameron’s strength as a leader. If he cannot encourage his own front bench to give up some of their income and dedicate more time to the cause, how can he run the party? How can he expect volunteer activists like myself who receive no money from politics at all to give up our time and money campaigning and donating?

When we interviewed for a new PPC for Watford, one question I asked the applicants was how much time they could dedicate to the job, unpaid as it is – and I expected it to be pretty much their top priority. If we expect such dedication from our candidates, how can we expect any less from our Shadow Cabinet?

David Cameron needs to put his foot down and say that any Shadow Cabinet member who cannot or will not dedicate themselves properly to their job as a front bencher should consider themselves fired.