To wonder why on earth you'd want to be a MP?

[OtraCosaMariposa]

Why does anyone - whatever their political persuasion - put themselves forward for this role? You have to be in London for extended periods, often leaving your family behind. The money is good but many of them could earn a lot more doing other stuff. You get death threats and abuse on a daily basis. When you're at your workplace and stand up to speak, you get boos and heckles from the people sitting opposite you. You have no job security.You have to read unpleasant stuff about yourself or hear people commenting about you, your party or the political system in general.

The whole thing seems to me to be a total nightmare and the most toxic working environment imaginable. No wonder so many of them are not standing for re-election.

iggly yes it is- but as many MPs stepping down are saying- it’s a tough life. Especially at the moment.

Ah. I thought the 40 hour week comment was along the lines of - they are hardly ever in the House of Commons because they’re always in the bar!

YES! to @packingsoapandwater. This thread is honestly an eye-rolling example Of upper middle class MN at its finest when you have posters like @velveteenfruitbowl exclaiming wideeyed about how individuals with ONE partner on £75k can't possible afford to support a family. How on earth do you think the other 95% of the country earning far less than that from two incomes manage to support theirs?

Also agree with the posters who commented that many of the people actively already working to make the country a better place (nurses, police, social workers etc.) are either paid far less or are volunteers working for free, many of whom I am sure would be fantastic mps if they had the inclination, and much better than the 'very well educated' lot taking pay cuts from their city jobs to tick a public service box for a fee years.

The actual pay is a complete red herring. To encourage a wider selection if people as Mps I believe we should be trying to remove the non-pay related barriers/discouraging factors, such as the need to be away from home all the time (get with the times and sort out electronic voting), disgusting insulting misogynistic braying culture in the chambers, and the large upfront costs needed to run.

In all seriousness, would more money make any difference to the toxic environment and death threats / and vandalism? its horrific to put up with, but would you have said i'm not prepares for my son to be threatened in public for 75k but for 350k its ok to threaten my child with special needs?

‘...and yes...I'd have to take a pay cut.

But that doesn't automatically mean I'm out of touch with 'ordinary people’
Well said

IMO the salary is a bit low.

I realise that other jobs involve being threatened, working 80 hours a week, no job security, lots of responsibility, etc on less money but rarely do they combine all of these things.

You can pick any one element and say "Well XYZ job is insecure/long hours/etc and they earn much less" but they don't have the other aspects.

On top of which is the lack of privacy, media intrusion, threats to your family, kids being bullied, recognised everywhere you go around your constituency and I imagine probably stopped and ranted at a lot when you're just doing your grocery shopping.

That's a lot for £75k.

And expenses now are fully transparent to the public and only pay for things like travel to Parliament, somewhere to stay in London, running the constituency office, etc.

Gone are the times when MPs can bump up their salary with expenses (quite rightly).

The money to be an MP is rubbish. I know £75k might seem like a lot but it is not for people with their qualifications, they all could easily earn more elsewhere.

I think there are two types of MP, (1) those who do it because they care about certain issues and want to help shape the country they live in instead of just being a bystander while others make the rules and (2) attention seekers who do it for the ego trip. Hm I wonder which kind we are currently ‘led’ by.

Thank you Genetic -

I do get angry when people attack anyone who is trying to make things better. How do people think we got an NHS? (My grandfather was one of those who fought for it through politics). How do they think we got schools that were free for everyone and not just the very rich? How do they think things like maternity pay, equal pay, consumer rights and housing acts came into being???

(And if you don't agree with something - go into politics and change it. We should all be involved)

Agree op. Pay is poor. And I don’t take the point about other workers etc they should be paid more what could be more important than passing laws it’s a high skilled job. And “ordinary” workers don’t take the responsibility look at the repercussions if they cock up (tony Blair Iraq war) plus non stop abuse and are of course never really off duty. Most will have taken a pay cut.

Greed, power, money, fame.

I agree that we should be looking at what the barriers are for people joining from outside certain professional roles though and working on that.

I would love a Parliament with plenty of MPs with a background in teaching, manufacturing, the NHS, police, etc.

TBH I think not having that (and too many people who come from privileged backgrounds) is one of the reasons we end up with policies that theoretically are good ideas but put into practice in a way that is clearly shit and not common sense (see universal credit as an example).

“ Greed, power, money, fame.”

Yep. Loads of that struggling with the benefit system or the immigration service or local landlord on behalf of your constituents. As I said, don’t conflate “MP” and “Front Bencher”

Where are all these £75k plus jobs out there that anyone with a half decent education can get? I’d love to find one!

I find it hugely worrying that MPs get so much vitriol. If we want decent, principled people to come forward we need to be able to offer a climate that allows people to do their job without fear and bullying, often from their own parties. The language is atrtocious - 'betrayal' etc etc.

I believe the media bears responsibility here - aggressive questioning, soundbites, not letting people finish their sentences, and platforming of extremists who border on inciting violence.

Saying all that I think we actually do have some great MPs in all parties.

Unfortunately we also have some not so great ones, and even more unfortunately they tend to make it to the front-benches more often than not.

I wouldn’t do it. But MPs do get a lot of perks financial and otherwise. I’ve had jobs where I was away from home a lot and the expenses regime (in particular the taxation of it) is way more generous for MPs. As for security, they get a pension and a pay-off when they lose or quit

57varities

Sadly the closer you work to money - the more money you make.

So basically: Go to London and these jobs are ten a penny in financial services, law, insurance, pensions.

I'm not saying there's no work involved - you need a good degree, more often that not need to make it through a 3 day grad assessment and then spend a decade of doing up to 90 hours a week.

You probably won't get married until your late 30s because you were too busy to meet anyone and you might not be able to have kids because you weren't in a position to start until 37.

You have to work with some unimaginable arseholes.

But if all that takes your fancy then there are a lot of these jobs.

Grasspigeons You are of course right that the money is not why people do it. No amount of money is worth your family being threatened. That is why people are leaving politics. (I was shocked to hear of the email about being a baby-killer that was sent to Heid Allen).

That is what we have to change.

Personally I think the pay is a red herring when it comes to tackling the sheer violence that MPs face.

It’s unacceptable regardless of salary. Would it be okay if they’re paid millions instead?

No. It wouldn’t be ok.

MPs should feel safe in their jobs. That’s what needs tackling.

wheresmymojo - couldnt agree more. There seems to be a lot of barriers to becoming an mp and a lot of significant downsides. Its easy to say 'increase pay' but that literally only changes one barrier for the 10% of society who already earn near to or more than that.

Oh...and chuck in a couple of stays at psychiatric hospital because of working hours/stress/arseholes combined with your bipolar disorder.

Obvs I'm being a tad snarky...

I guess I'm just trying to make the point that these jobs are pretty available but some of us have had to make the kind of trade offs for this that a lot of other people wouldn't be prepared to do (which is fine).

I agree that for many it is probably a pay cut, so the salary isn't an incentive, and I do believe many are in politics to make positive change, but i feel the main incentives are the jobs and the salaries that they have access to after they have been an MP, and the additional perks outside of their salary while they are an MP. They also have influence and persuasion over policy, which can work in their favour and benefit them financially once they leave the profession.

Some of them were just crap at their job before being an MP. A couple of the Conservative cabinet ministers have a poor track record in previous roles, which is quite scary really.

It could also just be the old saying that politics is just show business for ugly people, although quite a lot of the MP's are far from ugly! Maybe being well regarded in history as making bold and positive changes for the greater good is quite an attractive prospect to someone with a big ego.

I do feel for people who come in to politics for selfless reasons and get abuse. Having worked in a public service role where people routinely think it's acceptable to be violent, racist and hateful towards staff because "you sign up to it", I firmly believe that nobody should receive abuse whatever role they do. You can call someone out on something without using hate speech. These politicians are more than likely to be affected most and leave the profession, while the more selfish MP's (the supposed narcissists that are in politics) probably take it on the chin and stay.

Thing is @wheresmymojo other than the London thing plenty of people have to do all that for work anyway and still earn nowhere near £75k. Many (most?) MPs wouldn’t be working in London surely

‘I agree that we should be looking at what the barriers are for people joining from outside certain professional roles though and working on that’
Isabel hardmans book is good on this.
It’s called ‘why we get the wrong politicians’

I hear the benefits and expenses are rather good.

If you were listening to people in 2009. They are poor now- shared room is a house level. Much less that I get for central London

Also very few people walk straight out of one job into being a MP.

Used on what? I know a good few MPs. When the election was called they had to go on unpaid leave from their jobs and then resigned when they were elected.