Two Conservative MPs have accepted jobs with the gambling industry worth tens of thousands of pounds before a government review of betting laws, the Guardian can reveal. The Ladbrokes owner, GVC, paid Philip Davies £49,980 for “providing advice on responsible gambling and customer service”, according to parliamentary disclosures. He accepted the first instalment of the money on 27 August but did not step down as a member of the select committee for digital, culture, media and sport, the department managing the forthcoming review of gambling regulation, until this week. Davies did 124 hours of work for GVC at a rate of £403 per hour, 68 times the £5.93 minimum wage in 2011, when he suggested that employers should be allowed to pay disabled people less than that. Fellow Tory MP Laurence Robertson will be paid £2,000 for 10 hours a month working for the Betting and Gaming Council (BCG), a job he started on 1 October. In the more modestly paid role, equivalent to £24,000 a year, he will serve as the BCG’s parliamentary adviser on sport and safer gambling. Robertson said he would not advocate for the betting industry, nor make submissions to the gambling review on behalf of the cross-party parliamentary on betting and gaming, of which he is a member. Both Robertson and Davies have been vocal advocates for the horseracing and gambling sector and have previously faced questions over thousands of pounds worth of hospitality given to them by gambling firms. But their acceptance of highly paid roles with two organisations expected to be leading voices in the £14bn-a-year industry’s efforts to avoid tough regulation has provoked renewed criticism. The Labour MP Carolyn Harris, a leading advocate for gambling reform and parliamentary private secretary to the party leader, Keir Starmer, said: “Laurence and Philip Davies are the two people who’ve spoken out most in support of the industry. “There’s a conflict of interest here, isn’t there?” Davies and Robertson’s work for the gambling industry emerged weeks after the Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, a vocal critic of the industry during his time as a politician, faced heavy criticism for accepting an advisory role with Flutter, the owner of Paddy Power. But while Watson is no longer in parliament, Davies and Robertson remain prominent backbenchers in the party in government. A spokesperson for GVC said Davies was no longer working for the company. They said he had advised “on a range of safer gambling and customer protection initiatives”, pointing to his background as a bookmaker and former chairman of a cross-party group on betting and gaming. “As such, he has useful insight and perspective to offer on a range of industry issues including those that relate to safer gambling,” the company said. “However, following the recent management change at GVC, we decided it was a natural time to bring this arrangement to an end.” Davies has previously attracted attention for his lobbying efforts on behalf of the gambling industry. In 2018, the sports minister Tracey Crouch was said to have been “furious” at reports that Davies had met ministers in an attempt to delay the reduction in stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals. She quit when the Treasury agreed to postpone the implementation of the policy, triggering a rebellion that forced the government into a U-turn. In 2016, Davies was cleared of any wrongdoing by the parliamentary standards watchdog over claims that he had failed to disclose £10,000 in hospitality from gambling firms while sitting on a committee investigating the sector. A BCG spokesperson pointed to Robertson’s years of experience and knowledge, including about safer gambling and sport, including his membership of several cross-party groups on gambling. “He is a strong advocate of big changes in the betting industry,” the BGC said. “Indeed, as a Conservative candidate at the last general election, he stood on a manifesto specifically committed to reforming the Gambling Act. His appointment is consistent with the strict parliamentary rules and has already been declared, so it is fully transparent.” Robertson said: “I have, of course, had registered interests in betting and horseracing for over 20 years and have always, and continue, to observe the strict parliamentary rules on such matters. “Paid advocacy is, of course, rightly prohibited in parliament and my contract with the BGC rules out such practices anyway.” The Guardian has approached Davies for comment.