I've worked in politics for a decade AMA

[EK27]

First in Westminster as a Parliamentary staffer, then for a political party, now in a political lobbying type role where I work with MPs from all parties (including travelling with them, so have got to know some well). AMA.

Do you have any faith in any current party at the moment and do you think the government is in as much of a mess as the media leads us to believe?
Is Starmer out of his depth ?
What is your opinion on Reform ?

I think this government is a big improvement on the last fourteen years, and doing a lot of good stuff that is not getting much of a hearing. When I look at the chaos of 2016 - 2024 (the political instability, totally unsuitable figures as PM, the money and sheer political bandwidth that Brexit took up), it feels like such a huge improvement. It just felt like constant chaos in a way it doesn't now.

In terms of Starmer, I think he's out of his depth in terms of political communication, particularly in the current media environment. But in terms of running the government, navigating a frankly hellish geo-political context and delivering on the manifesto he got elected on, I think he's doing fine. Huge improvement on what came before and hope he gets a second term. Potentially in coalition with Lib Dems / Greens if Labour can't get a majority.

Reform? If they get into power, the country's fucked. I don't think they have any interest in governing at all. Their current MPs barely turn up to Parliament and the council's they're running are in chaos. They don't attract people actually interested in how you govern to improve things for people.

How much do politicians themselves actually have influence over? From where I’m standing, it looks like civil servants just push things through regardless of who is at the top, e.g. the much repackaged digital economy bill that was drafted under conservatives and quietly rehashed and implemented under labour. It seems like aside from manifesto pet laws, the party in charge actually is largely ineffective.

Who is the nicest MP you have met?

I don't want to name names, but the one I disagreed with most on pretty much everything, annoyingly! (You're unlikely to have heard of him though, not prominent)

Well, I suppose politicians vary massively in their personal influence - the PM and Chancellor have the most, but even they're subject to pressure from MPs, the party, the public etc. Then I suppose you'd have everyone in the Cabinet, followed by anyone with a Ministerial post, people seen as 'rising stars' and so on.

Opposition MPs have far less influence, and the minor parties very little. But there are various ways within Parliament to exert pressure on the government or campaign for changes to the law, so some backbench MPs do manage this through different means. The goal is to maximise your political capital, then spend it on what you went into politics to try and achieve, I suppose.

In terms of 'manifesto pet laws', do you mean the provisions in the renters rights bill to allow tenants to have pets? (As a cat owner this makes me very happy!)

The government is implementing most of its manifesto - Full Fact is doing a tracker here: https://fullfact.org/government-tracker/

What's your educational background, and how did you get into this type of work? Is yours a typical career trajectory?

When you say travelling with MPs -- for what reason? To where?

ETA: Thanks for this. Very interesting AMA.

Without naming names do any of them have any unusual eating or drinking habits? Like we hear of Trump and his 60 cans of diet coke or whatever. And Rishi with his Mexican coca cola. Hmm, is that a euphemism?!

Do any of them drink alcohol during he day, and if so what and how much? And do any do coke or other drugs? Well, I know some do but have you seen it?

👏🏻😊
Well said and thank you for the thread.

Undergraduate degree in humanities (not politics), some volunteering with a political party as a student, then got a job as a caseworker to an MP when I was 24. The jobs are competitive but not impossible. Caseworker helps you get your foot in the door, although job itself is more administrative than political. Then I moved into a Parliamentary researcher role.

Travelling involved accompanying them on official visits / delegations relevant to UK government work overseas.

Never experienced anything like this at all. Most of them are workaholics. Have shared a beer once or twice at the end of a working day, but that's about it.

Damn! Thank you though.

Hi OP great thread so thankyou.
I know it's way in the future but do you think it's the immigration debate that will win the next GE?
I sincerely hope not.

I'm glad people are enjoying it! For all its frustrations, working in politics is extremely interesting and gives you a very different perspective to people on the outside.

I really don't know, to be honest. I also think living standards, the rate of inflation and the state of public services will be relevant too. In terms of immigration, it's hard to know what success looks like exactly - the overall immigration numbers are coming down but it doesn't feel like people pay much attention to statistics. Totally agree asylum hotels need to close and again, the numbers of them are falling but it can't happen immediately. If they're gone by the next election, that might win the government some credit, as might small boat numbers falling.

The whole debate feels so emotive and often divorced from the facts I'm not entirely sure what policy solution people want. I don't agree with deporting people who are settled here, and I think the trade-offs in terms of the economy are too high to massively restrict legal immigration too.

Thanks for the thread. Fascinating… my questions are -

Do you think there is a Westminster bubble or do you sense that there is sense that London is not the same as the regions?

Why the hell does Reform always get press? Is BBC biased in its obsession with impartiality? Which news channel is most accurate?

Why are the perceptions of Starmer so bad? And does the Labour Party suffer from misogyny from the media?

I suppose there's a Westminster bubble in the sense it's a very unusual work environment and some things you only understand through working in it? But generally speaking I think (mots) politicians end up meeting a far wider cross section of society than most people do. Certainly I met a huge cross-section of society through working for MPs. Most people live in bubbles, I think.

I think Reform get more press because journalists love to present politics in terms of dramatic human interest stories rather than covering policy change that actually affects people's lives. I think it's really dangerous to be honest.

In terms of Starmer, I don't actually know. I worked with him a little to a few years ago, and he's basically been exactly the person I expected him to be as PM - emotionally reserved, extremely strategic, highly intelligent and hyper-focused on delivery. He's just a very serious person, basically, although he does have a (dry) sense of humour. I think he's a very personally decent person, certainly in terms of treating people close to him well. Never heard any stories about bullying or unreasonable behaviour etc.

Unless you just hate the Labour party by default, I find it hard to understand why he inspires such negative emotion, and I wonder if a lot of this is algorithmic social media posts I'm not party to. Ultimately I don't know if I have more insight on that than anyone else and it feels very unfair to me, to be honest. I get that people would prefer someone more personally charismatic or inspiring, but considering the shambles we've had recently, he feels a clear improvement. He also quite deliberately didn't run on a platform of promising immediate drastic change - he was clear it was a ten-year mission of 'renewal', in his words, so it's hard to see why people feel particularly misled.

What's the best way to get a politician to support a small campaign? The best way to engage and the easiest thing to ask them to do?

Full disclosure, that’s why I like him and defend him (but no one agrees with me!) I do not want charisma after all the idiots recently. I want pragmatic and values driven!

Thank you

Where do your own political beliefs, adherences and allegiances sit while you're in this job, @EK27? I'm assuming that when you volunteered with a political party as a student, it was one you yourself broadly supported, but have you set your own personal politics aside since working professionally in the field of politics?

Thank you for this thread. I find most discussion about politicians and politics quite frightening at the moment in its bizarre disconnection from observable reality, so it’s good to read something more level-headed.

What do you think about ethnic English kids now being a minority in schools and the historic English likely to be a minority in the next 50 years?

There’s a phrase the OP used above, something about ‘emotive’ and ‘not engaged with facts’…

Yeah, to be honest, I think there's lots of forums to discuss the specific content of people's views and it might be more interesting if this one stuck more to my personal experiences? Otherwise just becomes a general political debate

I agree. There are plenty of other threads on MN where pp can discuss that issue.

Work out what it is you'd actually like the MP to do, then email their office to ask them to do it! Then call if you don't get a response.

I think it depends a bit if they are your own constituency MP or not. If they are your MP, go and speak to them in surgery, explain why the campaign matters and why you'd like them to support. If they're not, put it in an email. Ultimately does depend a bit on their politics too, if the campaign is totally against their views or on a subject they've never engaged in, then that's harder. But you can always start somewhere.