Arriving in Westminster

It’s the largest intake of new Members of Parliament in living memory, but what is it really like arriving in Westminster for the first time?

In a word, it’s daunting.

This election campaign was long. Most candidates won’t have slept for the last 72 hours of it. Results can come in as late as 7am (and they will probably have been up since 4am the day before) and if you’ve won, there’s likely a party waiting for you at home.

Then it’s off to Westminster, but if you’ve not been there before (and a lot of this intake never imagined they’d win), how do you find the entrance?

The place is quite literally a palace and finding your way round seems impossible.

It’s much better these days with clerks, doorkeepers and whips providing buddying and onboarding sessions, but the volume of information is overwhelming. New MPs are given a backpack of documents – from how to address other Members in debates to security of staff and family and bullying helplines.

MPs generally get their passes on the first day so they know that other people walking around with green and white lanyards are also MPs, but how can you tell if they’re from your party?

One former Conservative MP in her first week was sitting in one of the Lady Members’ rooms (they still have those and in my day they had ironing boards in them) when Harriet Harman and Diane Abbott walked in.

She panicked and thought she must be in the wrong place – these were celebrities and they were in the same room as her! Harriet and Diane couldn’t have been more helpful with advice on not feeling intimidated and dealing with the imposter syndrome that almost every new MP suffers from.

Imposter syndrome is made worse in the first weeks when newspapers publish lists of ‘rising stars’ and ‘ones to watch’ which, if you haven’t been a special adviser, you tend not to be on. It’s only later that you realise it’s simply that journalists know these people already and they don’t know you.

The worst was not getting an office – not for months. You have to wait for Members who lost their seats to clear their rooms and they might have more pressing priorities (like finding a job) to worry about.

Then it goes by seniority. The most important MPs (or those that need to be persuaded not to rebel on some important issue) get the most amazing rooms – penthouses with vast windows looking onto the face of Big Ben or corner offices overlooking the Thames.

Then there are cupboards that have been gathering dust for years so far away from the Chamber (where you have to vote) that you have to set off early to make it in time for a division.

Until then, you float around the cafes and corners of Parliament, dragging a vast bag of mail with you and wondering where on earth you’re going to get the time to respond to the thousands of emails that suddenly flood your inbox.

It’s no surprise that most of the new intake will be limping to summer recess when they can finally spend some time setting up their constituency offices and catching up with their families.

So, spare a thought…

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