Chris Huhne Lands Top Job At Energy Firm

Disgraced former MP Chris Huhne has landed a lucrative job at a US energy firm just months after being released from prison.

The ex-energy and climate change cabinet secretary has become the European manager of Zilkha Biomass Energy, according to the company's website.

He is reported to be on a salary of £100,000 for the two-day-a-week position, which will raise questions about the links between politics and business.

Huhne and ex-wife Vicky Pryce were released from jail in May after serving 62 days of an eight-month sentence for perverting the course of justice.

They lied about who was driving when the politician was due to receive penalty points in 2003 so that he could avoid a driving ban.

The truth emerged only years later after the then senior Lib Dem left his wife of 26 years for another woman and Pryce approached the press to get her revenge.

Huhne finally admitted his guilt on the day his trial was due to start, after failing to have the case thrown out.

Having already resigned from the Cabinet when he was charged, he then quit as a Lib Dem MP and privy councillor.

Pryce pleaded not guilty, claiming she was forced to take the points by her then husband, but her story was ultimately rejected.

Huhne's biography on the Zilkha Biomass website details his work as a Government minister and previous careers in finance and journalism but does not mention his fall from grace.

It says he was appointed in July "with the remit of growing the business in the European Union".

And it hails the politician, once tipped as a future Lib Dem leader, as "one of the pioneers in calling for political action to deal with global warming".

The move has been given the go ahead by the Advisory Commission on Business Appointments, which advises the Prime Minister about former ministers' new jobs.

This is despite him being Energy Secretary until last year and having access to privileged Government information.

According to The Sun, he also met representatives from Zilkha Biomass during his time as Secretary of State.

The committee reportedly concluded that he had not been involved "in the development of policy, award of grants or regulatory work" that might have affected the company.

A spokesman told The Sun that Huhne "was not aware of any contractual relationship between his former department and ZBE and had no access to commercially sensitive information about any competitors".

Huhne had been keeping a low profile since his jail term, which he described as a "humbling and sobering experience".

Both he and Pryce, with whom he has three children, have to wear electronic tags.

Pryce, a former top economist who last month had her honour for government service revoked by the Queen, is working on a book about her experiences called Prisonomics.