A Little History

This project was established, in January 2000, with European Union ADAPT funding to provide an appropriate programme of training and development for the staff of MPs, at Westminster and in the constituencies. Innovative training programmes and resource facilities were piloted at Westminster and constituencies.

The site was built and is managed by Bill Thompson.   He is assisted by Karen Lawrinson who is maintaining the website on a day-to-day basis with support from Abi Melton.

Best-selling author Dick Robinson, who worked in a constituency office for 9 years, wrote much of the website’s original content.

Abi Melton and Lilith Cooper keep the Jobs site in working order, with Erik Zimmerman offering technical support.

Several other people contribute from time to time and the website has also benefited from collaboration with others, including many other MPs’ staff from all parties.

A Little History

Until 31 August 2003 the project was paid for from House funds and operated in partnership with the Industry and Parliament Trust.  The maintenance of the website is now funded directly by the Department of Human Resources and Change of the House of Commons.

In September 2005 Bill took over as site editor, with Dick remaining in charge of job ads and taking an executive role. A separate Jobs site, w4mpjobs, was launched in early 2012, and a separate Training site went live in Spring 2012.

After nearly ten years w4mp.org moved to a new server running on the popular and powerful WordPress platform in 2012 and was completely redesigned in January 2015.

Please let us know of any issues you have with the site, or any errors/omissions you notice.

Get In Touch

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any suggestions or comments – details as follows.  Please note that we cannot assist with complaints about Members of Parliament, nor can we assist with casework.  Please do not send us details of complaints, casework or personal information.  We do not accept sponsored/paid posts.

 Ask a Question:

Use our question form  if you have questions about anything to do with working for an MP (for staff use only)

The team can be reached using the email address [email protected].

Job Details:

If you want to change details on a job ad it is fastest to email [email protected]

Feedback on the site:

Use the Feedback Form

Acknowledgements

A large number of people have contributed to the creation of the material on this website.  It was always intended to be a cross-party production and so it is, with input not only from the staff of MPs but from House of Commons staff as well.

Particular thanks are due to:  Clive Burrows, Richard Chapman, Richard Clarke, Rob Clements, Starbuck Coleman, Maureen Cook, Neil Crawley, Melissa Crawshay-Williams, Carys Davis, Kim Dewdney, Sally Duncan, Maureen Fitzhenry, Kevin Flack, Rachel Flagg, Lynn Fletcher, Katie Fuller, Sara Garnham, Amina Gual, Gerry Hall, Andy Harrop, David Haselhurst, Diane Hill, Mark Hudson, Anne Humbles, Georgie Jessiman, Neil Johnston, Mike Kelly, Alex King, Jo Latham (née Holland), Karen Lawrinson, Larry Leaf, Andrew Learmonth, Samantha Mackewn (née Gore), Kirsty McAskill, Veronica Martell, Alison McGovern, Fiona Mellersh (Syms), Jessica Metheringham, Matt Morrison, Kurt Mueller, Ellie Mumford Smith (née Dusic), Helen Newton, Keith Parry, Emily Pluckrose, Luke Pollard, Chris Pond, Paul Redfern, Richard Robinson, Chris Sear, Liz Shannon, Sadie Smith, Tim Snowball, Liz Stephen, Alex Swallow, Richard Thomas, Maxim Thompson, James Tobin, Rosie Turner, Helen Undy, Luke Waterfield, Shirley-Ann Weir, Ceri White, Heather Wood and Erik Zimmerman, Abi Melrose, Emily Pluckrose.

And if you find typos or mistakes or things that are just plain wrong, we won’t be offended if you point them out to us.