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.

Thing is re the salary, I do totally accept many MPs will have taken a cut. Not all though. My MP was a manager in a fast food outlet, he’ll have had a significant increase. There are many reasons I wouldn’t be an MP many have been outlined here, but to wank on endlessly about “low pay” when it’s almost 3 times the national average salary is ridiculous

Wheres I had one of those jobs of which you speak . Note had! I valued my mental health and wanted to see my kids so leant out but if you want to make £100k it’s very doable.

57 not many people have said its 'low pay'

@BertrandRussell I think that the package that MPs currently get is very generous and enough to support their role.

What can you rent in central London (or indeed any part of London) for the amount they receive? Do you even know what it is? Daily allowance? What they can and can't claim for?

The ignorance spouted about MPs on mumsnet sums up the whole Brexit debacle. People need to be informed and not by the Daily Mail, their mate down the pub or something they heard about a duck house 10 years ago.

I don't know anyone else in my friendship circles that has had to do 90 hours a week for a decade in a stressful job other than those in high paying jobs...?

A lot of MPs in South East will have commuted into London.

I do a 90 mile round car trip every day to mine (most are in the City but many are around the South East).

I'd have to look at a sample of MPs to validate but many tend to have come from those type of jobs....many MPs have to uproot their families and move across the country to sit in whichever constituency the party thinks they have a chance of taking.

So, for example, if I were an MP the party might decide that I'd work well up North having been brought up in Stoke and lived in Manchester and so if I won I'd have to move up to wherever they picked.

@poshme loads of people have said the money’s not good, it’s poor, it’s shit etc.

What can you rent in central London (or indeed any part of London) for the amount they receive? Do you even know what it is? Daily allowance? What they can and can't claim for?
MPs don’t get a ‘daily allowance’. And there’s plenty of places they can rent within expenses rules.

“ but to wank on endlessly about “low pay” when it’s almost 3 times the national average salary is ridiculous”
Yes that would be ridiculous. Good thing nobody is!

Interesting thread - I think there's tonnes of things that could be done to get more 'normal' people into MP roles. I have some ideas but aren't really in a position to influence anyone.

Will perhaps put some together and some of us could raise it with our own MPs?

I think one of the barriers is that a lot of other jobs don't involve similar skills so people don't feel confident to stand.

For example a nurse might feel they're excellent at their job, politically engaged and have tonnes of the right personal characteristics but don't often speak to large crowds of people, debate, understand the ins and outs of how politics work. So they think they aren't suitable.

There could easily be a non-partisan programme to identify the right people from all walks of like and give them the skills and confidence they'd need.

PS....have to drive into the office now but will check in later to see if anyone is interested in putting a proposal about the above to MPs across parties...

There is a difference between the pay is low and saying that the pay is low compared to roles with a similar level of commitment and responsibility.

One of the key changes for me would be to change the bear pit nature of debate in the Chamber of the HoC. When you compare it to Committee hearings or the HoL it is infantile and embarrassing but it is what many people think Parliament is about.

Getting more ‘normal’ people to be MPs.
You need to be able to spend A LOT of time campaigning before you get elected. This is not paid. So you need people who are willing to risk their current jobs. So eg a teacher would need to spend several hours every evening & both days at weekends campaigning on top of their current workload. And every single day of their holidays. For maybe 2 years before getting elected.
Seriously you should read Isabel hardmans book.
And there are organisations that provide training & support for wannabe MPs- esp for women. Mentoring & training etc.

I think up until 10 years ago I could understand why MPs want their job, since social media the abuse and death threats being part of the job is disgusting. It’s the continuous abuse as well, at least when death threats arrived by the post it was only once a day. And it’s now part of an MPs role to be visible, they have to use social media. It’s left them to the mercy of a mob wankers, the type who would have attended public executions and lynchings in years past, desperately typing away their inadequacies.

Page one on this thread had a fair few posters saying £75 a year is a shit wage. It really isn’t....

Why can't people tell the difference between "the money is rubbish" and "given the hours and responsibilities, the money isn't competitive"?

£75k a year! £75 a year is shit.

Agree with GeneticTest, the road to becoming an MP is very hard unless you’re in a very safe seat. Unless you have an incredibly flexible job or private means, and you don’t have small children or you can afford excellent childcare, all of which rule out a huge chunk of the population, you couldn’t work the constituency to get elected.thats just the beginning ... it’s appalling that the number of MPs who have ever had real jobs outside politics....not lobbyists or researchers or policy wonks straight from uni....has fallen dramatically over the last few decades for all parties. How can They know the reality of how most of the population actually live and how they are affected by policies?

I find some of the posts here incredible.

I absolutely agree that MPs are expected to work hard for their £75k, and the job places a huge strain on the person and their families. I think you need to really believe in what you're doing, or just have an extremely hard skin, for it to work.

However, the idea that £75k is some kind of pauper's salary, and that it's impossible to support a family on it, is frankly ridiculous. As is the idea that every MP would have had the option to walk into a job with a six figure salary. Not all MPs have professional qualifications and senior experience coming out of their ears. Conversely, lots of people have excellent qualifications and experience and aren't getting huge salaries.

For MPs and their 'poor' salary, they're still in the top 10% of earners, so if they can't support a family then how on earth does anyone else manage it?

As for the insecurity, they effectively get a redundancy payment of up to £33k when they lose their seats, not to mention the fact that being an MP would give a significant boost to their future career prospects.

MN really is another world at times.

Agreed @sakura7

The redundancy package has changed.

Why can't people tell the difference between "the money is rubbish" and "given the hours and responsibilities, the money isn't competitive"?

Because plenty of people have just said the money is poor, no qualification.

It isn't the money. It's the connections and hidden perks.

You get selected. You shake the right hands and meet the right people. A donor offers you a huge amount of money to pay for propaganda. Of course, you don't do anything for the donor, or the donors relative. But a friend of the donors relative owns a holding company which owns a printing business, from which you buy your posters. This makes the donor-relative-friend lots of money. The printing business owner is governor at a public school, so the donors relative son gets a glowing recommendation.

So your propaganda gets you elected. You meet lots of other MPs who want your support for various things. In return for a 'minor' vote you get an invitation to a party, purely for being a good colleague. You rub shoulders with real movers or shakers (bankers, CEOs, media oligarchs) while being so very, very careful to avoid anything that looks like corruption. But you make friends. One day you're approached by a lobbyist who is a friend of a friend you made at the party. You have a drink and they have a proposal that you don't give a shiny shit about, but it will mean a positive response from another donor (or political editor, or relevant business owner). Nothing will directly benefit them of course. But it will mean that another 'friend' will be able to help out another 'friend' who will of course be happy to support you join a committee.

So now you're on a committee and have access to a budget. You're so careful to ensure that you have no legally identifiable connections to the contractors you end up directing money to (whats the committee for? Do you care? Of course not, but money is power). But if you were to trace back the legally innocent conversations in bars, perfectly legitimate lobbyist meetings, quid pro quos with voting colleagues you'd find - nothing. Nothing illegal at any rate. But you would have a huge web of favours, obligations and apparently disconnected actions taking place that add up to a lot of influence.

Maybe you get into government, which means the web is now international and the rube-goldberg machine of hidden interactions encompasses incredible levels of wealth and influence. Maybe you lose an election and retire, but the machine you set in motion will still play out. New friends who you never met while in parliament, who you have no provable link to previously, suddenly think you're perfect for a job on the executive board, or just the sort of chap to be governor at a fee-paying school. And while you never have the kind of visible wealth that draws the attention of the Law, the hidden wealth of power and influence gives you privilege and comfort for the rest of your life. And of course, your children are just the right type to become MPs themselves.

And being part of the machine makes you so, so much better than the lumpen proletariat, or celebrity oiks.

Ego.

MPs don’t get a ‘daily allowance’.

Yes they do. There is a daily subsistence rate for non London based MPs. There is also an allowance for a late sitting for all MPS. Both are much much less that either myself or my DH are given by our companies to cover overnight expenses in London.

Expenses for which MPs may claim include: (the figures are slightly high now)

Accommodation: Payable only to non-London area MPs to cover expenses incurred for overnight accommodation necessary for the performance of an MP's parliamentary duties. Claims may be made for rental payments and associated expenses such as utility bills, up to an annual limit of £19,900 of which a maximum of £17,400 may be claimed for rental payments. Alternatively MPs may claim for hotel accommodation up to a maximum of £130 per night in the London area and £105 elsewhere.

London Area Living Payment: This payment is limited to £3,760 per financial year payable monthly and is intended to contribute towards the additional expense of living within the London area.

In March 2012, IPSA announced that the Accommodation Expenditure budget would rise in line with inflation. The budget for mortgage interest has been reduced because that subsidy will not be claimable after August 2012.

Travel and Subsistence: MPs may claim for certain travel and subsistence expenses, including food and non-alcoholic drinks, incurred in relation to their parliamentary duties. This includes journeys between the constituency and Westminster, travel within the constituency, extended UK travel and journeys to the EU, all subject to specific limitations and conditions set out by IPSA. MPs may also claim for travel and subsistence expenses incurred for family members and members of their staff, again subject to specific conditions. Claims may also be made in relation to late night parliamentary sittings for hotel accommodation and taxi fares.

Staffing Expenditure: In its annual review published March 2012, IPSA stated that it had increased the budget limit for staffing to £137,200 for non-London area MPs and £144,000 for London area MPs. This money can be paid directly to staff as salaries and related costs: it is not a personal expense available to the MP. IPSA will also revise the job descriptions of MPs’ staff, but pay ranges for staff remain unchanged.

Constituency Office Rental Expenditure (CORE): MPs may claim for the costs of maintaining constituency offices and for the rental or hire of offices to provide surgeries. For London area MPs the annual CORE budget for 2010/11 is limited to £12,761 and for non-London area MPs the limit is £10,663. No expenses may be claimed for the rental of a property if the MP or a "connected party" is the owner of the property.

General Administration Expenditure (GAE): MPs may claim for office equipment including initial installation and maintenance, the procurement of services and for communication costs including stationery. The annual GAE budget is limited to £10,394.

In March 2012, IPSA announced that the Office Costs Expenditure budget would rise in line with inflation.

Winding Up Expenses: These expenses are designed to meet the cost of completing the outstanding parliamentary functions of a person who ceases to be a Member of Parliament and are limited to £40,609.

Miscellaneous Expenses: These include Disability Assistance which may be claimed for necessary additional expenditure incurred in the performance of parliamentary functions which is attributable to the disability of an MP. Security Assistance which may be claimed for any additional security measures deemed necessary for an MP. Contingency payments which may be claimed for expenditure incurred in relation to an MP's parliamentary duties which is not covered elsewhere in the scheme.

MPs don’t get a daily allowance.

You have just posted guidance from 2012. It is 2019. The rules have changed massively.
There is not a subsistence rate. Staff can claim for substance if absolutely necessary if travelling for parliamentary purposes. Family can claim travel to & from London but no subsistence.
Until this year MPs could not claim food or drink. Now they can claim modest hospitality for constituency office (no alcohol) ie tea & coffee so when they have constituency surgeries they can offer a drink.
You posted something about mortgage allowance- MPs have not been able to claim that for years.
Late sitting- if MPs sit late they can claim a taxi back to London accommodation after. (I know that’s
Controversial)

Full guidance on IPSA website.

MephistophelesApprentice
Hahahahahahahahaha