The MPs who lost their seats spent yesterday clearing out their offices. Their passes stop working later this week, and then they have a few months to wind up their offices and constituency work before truly becoming ex MPs. It is a brutal experience, not least because Westminster is buzzing with newly-elected members. There is always a risk that someone congratulates a member they think has come back as a victorious MP – only to find out they are in fact on their way to pack their working life into cardboard boxes and make their staff redundant.
Before an election, some MPs choose to clear out their offices early, just in case they’re not coming back. But in this campaign, there were a good number of Conservatives who only had an academic understanding that their party was going to lose seats: they didn’t realise that they would be among the numbers being shown the door by the electorate.
Losing your seat is, as Jeremy Hunt said last week, part of the magic of democracy. Slightly easier for him to say, perhaps, given he held onto his but he nonetheless had to move his family out of Downing Street where they had been living while he was chancellor. But I understand that he actually wrote that line before he knew he would hold his seat: he could have easily adapted it to a scenario where he was conceding to his opponents. He was at least prepared for that outcome. Many of his colleagues weren’t, and even though they knew the risks when they came into Westminster, the blow of losing your job is still as heavy for an MP as it is for anyone else – especially given it happens live on TV with a lot of people cheering your victorious opponent.
The parties themselves have a duty of care to their MPs. But how much support they offer often depends on how organised the party machine is – and the Tory machine is very far from that description at present. On 5 July, party chairman Rich Holden emailed colleagues who’d lost their seats to say ‘our priority over the next few weeks is your wellbeing and to provide support where we can as you close your campaign and transition to what you decide to do next’. This included an offer from Conservative Campaign Headquarters’ HR team to speak to any staffers and pointers to the services offered by parliament.
Those services have improved greatly this time around. Charles Walker stepped down at the election as Tory MP for Broxbourne, and was chair of the Administration select committee. He and his committee had been deeply worried about the way ex-MPs have been treated in the past, pointing to a lack of career options and help with the transition. This time around, he has been working, along with the clerks and a team of volunteers, on what he calls a ‘transformative’ system for moving former MPs back into civilian life.
There is a departing members area where ‘Non-Returned Members’, as they are delicately known, are given advice on HR, security, pensions and their health and wellbeing. They and their staff have 12 months of access to a support service offering counselling, debt and financial advice. There is also a career transition scheme being delivered by Right Management Ltd which will offer them career planning, coaching and CV writing. After previous elections, unseated MPs have walked into the local job centres because they didn’t know where else to go. Some of them will do that this time around, too, but at least their former employer now offers them some help for moving on. Walker says: ‘I’m very, very proud of the way the House staff are delivering this. My clerk on the Administration committee put in a thirteen hour shift to help ex-MPs yesterday.’
There is a reason that this sort of support matters to the rest of us. Being an MP is not an easy life, and it never will be. But the increasing volatility of politics coupled with the fact that employers now often view ex-MPs with some suspicion (they are seen as a deflator on boards) means the whole venture is quite unattractive. Knowing they will have a reasonable landing on the way out is a really important factor to those considering going into parliament – and we need the very best to have a reason to do that.
Watch departing MP Steve Baker give his verdict on SpectatorTV:
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