RISHI SUNAK must remove the whip from Tory MPs who were exposed at the weekend as pitching themselves to fake companies for six-figure sums, Labour has demanded.

In a sting operation set up by campaign group Led By Donkeys, former cabinet ministers Matt Hancock and Kwasi Kwarteng set out eye-watering sums for what they would expect to be paid to advise a non-existent firm in South Korea.

MPs are permitted to seek external employment and the ask does not go against parliamentary codes.

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

The disgraced former health secretary, who was stripped of the party whip by the Prime Minister after he was announced as a contestant in an ITV reality programme last year, later said he had an hourly rate of “around £1,500”.

Former Tory chancellor Mr Kwarteng, when asked the same question, said: he “wouldn’t do anything less than for about 10,000 dollars.”

Mr Kwarteng, whose mini-budget in September sent the value of the pound tumbling and mortgage rates soaring, went on to clarify that he would prefer the rate to be in pound sterling.

Told by a fake employee of the company they were considering offering between £8,000 and £12,000 per day, with the intention for him to attend six board meetings a year, Mr Kwarteng said: “OK yes, we’re not a million miles off. We can work with the numbers.”

Led By Donkeys, after consulting the register of MPs’ interests, it approached 20 MPs from different parties asking if they would join the phoney firm’s international advisory board.

According to its preview video posted on social media, 16 of the MPs approached were Tory, two Labour, one a Liberal Democrat and the other an independent.

Out of those contacted, five are said to have progressed to an online interview stage — all of which were Tories.

Shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire said: “Being an MP is a full-time job.

“Tory MPs should not be using their taxpayer-funded offices to line their own pockets.

“This is shameful at any time but particularly during the cost-of-living crisis.”

The Labour MP said the PM had promised a “government of integrity at every level, yet his own MPs are seemingly breaching the rules.

“He must act and remove the whip from those involved,” she said.