What do you do with a former MP?

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A rare thing happened last week, a Journalist from The Telegraph called me up to ask me something. This certainly wasn’t a rare occurrence before July. Handling responses, quotes, articles and opinion pieces for the local newspaper was a bread and butter part of the day job, as too were radio and ?local and regional TV interviews.

The Telegraph were researching a piece for their features section on how former MPs were getting on with the job search, and they wanted to send a photographer to my home too. Bugger! I thought. ?I am going to have to tidy up my study where I have been spending quite a bit of time at my desk. Thankfully, when Roger the Photographer arrived I needn’t have worried as he wanted me looking relaxed in the sitting room. Think Hello or OK!

No sooner had Roger got back in car to head back to West Yorkshire, than a former colleague sent me a screenshot of a comment which had appeared under The Telegraph article they had literally just published online – using a photo of me looking very tired and worn out the day after the 2019 General Election. Perhaps Rogers journey was wasted. Perhaps when the article appears in print they will use different photos?

Jeff Northern – I’m guessing not his real name,? had rather gallantly and kindly commented underneath the piece:? “Some really pathetic and vicious comments here. Regardless of political views, they are unemployed with all the problems and concerns that go with it. Peter Gibson was my MP and was a very good constituency MP for the town. He lost his seat mainly because of the poor performance of his party and leaders, but [to] blame individual MPs [as} people are on [here} is ridiculous. Bit of compassion wouldn't go amiss might be you one day.” Thanks Jeff that’s very kind of you.

I shouldn’t have looked. I know I shouldn’t have looked at the other comments. ?Just when you are getting your head together, and you are the critical part of a job application letter explaining how, on no more than two sides of A4, you meet the criteria of a four page person specification. But I did. Of course I did. You would wouldn’t you?

The tenor of the comments, well you can guess. You can even scroll through the more than a thousand comments yourself. Essentially MPs, especially defeated ones, are lazy, self serving, and have no skills, their unemployment status is no more than they deserve.

The one thing four years in Westminster does give you is thick skin, broad shoulders and resilience. Resilience by the bucketload. Very few other jobs put you on an 80 hour a week treadmill for four years, catapulting you up and down the country twice a week, and make you responsible to and for 100,000 people. Don’t get me wrong here. I am not seeking sympathy in any way shape or form. I had an absolutely incredible four and half years. I loved my constituency work, I loved getting stuck into the community and helping solve problems for people. I loved lobbying, campaigning for and securing investment in my constituency. Relished every single piece of good news we celebrated particularly when that was about new jobs.

Not All MPs are the same, and it is often said that the only people who know what it is like to be an MP is another MP. I would add to that their families and their staff too, who see the hours they put in, the pressure they are under to respond, react, deliver, be present and visible. Again I seek not a single ounce of pity from anyone reading this. Honest. Trust me I was an MP. No honestly. I had the immense privilege of doing a job very very few people ever get to do, and I would hate to think that that amazing opportunity for public service and making a real difference was dismissed by people who won’t even give it a try because of the risk of poorer job prospects afterwards.

To be part of the cohort of MPs who lost their seats in July is to be part of a strange club. As each member secures a job or role and announces it to the world, Linked in lights up, and the now much quieter WhatsApp group chats buzz into life with congratulations. I am sure I’m not the only one that privately thinks “when will it be my turn?”

I am fortunate to have a profession to return to, I’ve been lucky to continue doing some legal consultancy work and am enjoying doing consultancy work for a firm of professional indemnity insurance brokers (if you know of any Solicitors who need to renew their insurance this year please get them to give me a call), and I’ve even started to do bit of writing, but I do absolutely need to get back to putting a suit on in a morning and going to work – as I have done practically every day since 1997 – indeed long before I arrived at Westminster. ??

I know my time will come, I’m certainly putting the hard work into the research the tailoring of applications, and the networking. Anyone want a coffee? To put it into context Ex MPs who lost in July ?only received their loss of Office Payments in November, with much recruitment stopping in December we are only a few weeks into this marketplace for jobs. Its early days, and positivity wins. Don’t let the doomsters and gloomsters, to quote a former Prime Minister,? get you down. ?

I was asked recently at a preliminary chat with a Board Chair “What will it be like for us to have a Conservative on the Board”? - A little taken aback by the question – imagine for a second the word Conservative replaced with Black person, gay person, Woman, older person, or Wheelchair user, and you can imagine my shock.? I firmly told them that were I to join their board my duties would first and foremost be to the organisation and my politics would not come into it.

Ex MPs, and there are lot of us, did things before we became MPs, and we will all do things after we’ve been MPs, but every single one of us have the unique experience of getting to know how Westminster and Whitehall work and a unique and almost unparalleled insight to a particular community. A great range of skills that many organisations would benefit from.

You can read The Telegraph article here https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/16/ex-tory-mp-unemployed-political-views/

#formerMP #Politician #Jobhunting #NED #ProfessionalIndemnityInsurance #Solicitor #Parliament

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