I work for a Member of Parliament AMA.

[MPStaffMemberAMA]

I work for a Member of Parliament AMA.

Obviously I won't write anything identifiable otherwise I can't be completely honest with my other answers.

Longer than 5 years. Yes it has because of the change of government and people are so vile compared to when they started. Security is so crucial now which makes the job even more relentless. They are still enthusiastic and want to stand again.

Yes 100% and the more I know the more delighted I am to work for one of the good ones.

Fair enough. I will keep my powder dry for another day. Enjoy.

How do MPs tend to respond when they receive emails from constituents that have obviously been written for them by charities or pressure groups? Do such mass-produced emails get noticed and acted upon by MPs or are they a waste of time?

You do you

The information you need is in my original post. I won't be answering identifiable questions.

Since OP says it’s very Networky IMO she will be working for either a Labour or Tory MP as those are the only parties big enough to make that likely. Smaller parties everyone knows everyone anyway.

There is "huge* variability across offices. My team is brilliant though.

Honestly? A waste of time. We get hundreds every week and we just cannot answer them all. It's the worst bit of the inbox because you feel guilty for not personally responding but there just isn't the capacity.

It's networky across Members Staff Services, local government, local organisations, IPSA plus your party colleagues. You need to build relationships to get anything done.

Are you related to them? There seems to be a lot of that

I understand that you couldn't possibly reply to these emails individually, but it feels a bit counter-intuitive that sending them is a waste of time. If hundreds of constituents email your MP asking for the same thing, shouldn't that carry more weight than, for example, one constituent's letter demanding daily bin collections?

What is your MP's work life balance like? Is it a lot of late evenings? Are weekends taken up with lots of popping into constituency events? Do they get any meaningful time off?
What is your work life balance like? Are you expected to work as hard as them in terms of time?

Who are the nicest MPs you've met and who are not so nice ?

Do you get free lunches

What would happen at election time if the MP you work for is not re-elected and someone from another party wins the seat? Are you assigned to a particular constituency and work for whoever wins the seat in that constituency? If not, what happens next?

Do MP's staff often work in both constituency and parliament locations, or only if it is an easy commute?

Tell your MP to pass on the message that Tik Tok needs to be banned due to its fire starting and other stupid challenges.
The law is overdue an overhaul. The punishment MUST fit the crime.
Sort out the Boats.

No I'm not. Also, since the expenses scandal you aren't allowed to employ a 'connected person'

Bin issues are personal casework and dealt with by caseworkers. Campaign and policy emails are dealt with by policy assistants, researchers, parliamentary assistants. So capacity wise different people do different things.

We don't reply to them all but we do record them and reply as a bulk reply if it's a topic the Member has done something about e.g animal welfare, human rights abuse etc. I can promise they aren't ignored but it's much better to send a personal email about why it's important to you than a massive campaign email.

Terrible.

Regular late evenings with votes etc plus evening receptions, dinners (not fun! Working ones!) Yes every weekend there's at least one constituency event or surgery.

Recess is supposed to be time off but it's used for catching up on stuff they miss in the constituency when they're down in London.

I take all my annual leave allowance plus TOIL or overtime. It is full on and I wouldn't recommend it for people with small children but mine have grown up and it's very fulfilling. I love it. There is no expectation from my Member to do out of hours work and I don't accompany them on the weekend or evening unless it's something I'm interested in e.g. a parliamentary reception with David Attenborough as the guest speaker or a constituency event that's my kind of thing e.g. intimate screening of a climate change film.

My Member works extremely hard but they are a very fair boss.

May I ask about practicalities. How is it decided how many staff each MP is given and who covers the cost? I appreciate ministerial positions, Chairs of committees, Secretaries of State etc will be afforded more resources but as someone who is just starting to take a much deeper interest in politics, the admin interests me too.

Also - the relationship with journalists interests me too but I need to think about phrasing my question correctly!

TIA

Are they connected to their constituency or were they 'helicopted' in?

Have you had any hilariously incompetent interns in your office? If so please fish on what they did.

I should have checked before I posted! (sp) Apologies. I also believe the word used is 'parachuted'.

Because my Member has. a good cross party reputation if people know who I work for they aren't shitty to me. Generally I haven't seen much bad behaviour. Is it outing to say the worst behaviour reported to me by other staff members was Lee Anderson and Rupert Lowe (the day he got kicked out of Reform).

Ed Davey is an absolute gentleman and very respectful to staff. Sadiq Khan has a respectful way about him too.