Guides for MPs Staff
The House of Commons Library has published an important paper that looks at the current situation in a range of policy areas and considers what impact Brexit might have.
This will depend, among other things, on the Brexit negotiations, whether the UK stays in the European Economic Area and how the Government fills any policy gaps left by withdrawal.
Download the full report (PDF)
For information on short-term work experience placements for school pupils or college students, please see our page on ‘Organising Work Experience in an MP’s Office‘
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has developed a Charter, which offers a Code of Practice on good management practice in order to make an internship as successful as possible. W4MP supports this code of practice recommends it to all those involved in offering and taking part in internships.
If you are looking at this page because you are considering submitting an advertisement for an internship on W4MP, you may wish to revise the wording of your proposed advertisement to reflect this advice, before proceeding to submit it.
The CIPD is the UK’s leading professional body involved in the management and development of people. Even though organisations benefit from internships, their prime purpose is to provide interns with meaningful work experience that enhances their employability and skills. Ideally, an Intern should be paid a salary reflecting the contribution they make to the organisation, and at least receive the National Minimum Wage (or London Living Wage, where applicable). However, the quality of the experience for the Intern is the most important factor.
The CIPD recommends that organisations offering internships should adhere to a voluntary code of practice, which is laid out in the following sections, indicated by the text in bold and italics.
Congratulations, you got a job – you are now a Parliamentary Researcher (or some other equally-misleading job title), probably responsible for everything from making tea and opening post to writing speeches and shaping policy. Brilliant! I hope you’re feeling suitably pleased with yourself. And, what’s more, you now appear to be diligently reading the guides on w4mp to make sure you’re as good as you can be at your job. What a star! (Either that or you were reading the funny cartoon strips and stumbled across this by accident…)
So, you arrive on your first day, open the post, change the voicemail recording (after a few attempts) to you enthusiastically suggesting people call the constituency office, and your MP has been packed off to the first of a series of meetings. You’re about to tackle your inbox, starting to feel like you might actually know what you’re doing, when there’s a coughing noise in the corner of the room. There in the corner, nervously trying to check Facebook with their screen turned so that they think you can’t see it, is an Intern.
Argh! As if managing yourself and your MP isn’t quite enough, there’s someone else. Someone that relies entirely upon you to tell them what to do, and how to do it.
However, judging by the amount of applications that come in for parliamentary internships, chances are this person is pretty good. Internships should be, and can easily be, mutually beneficial. They want to learn about the job, get some experience and enjoy being in Westminster. You’d like some help around the office, and someone to rant with when your boss is running two hours late or you spill your paper cup of porridge from the Debate caff all over your keyboard. (Believe me, that stuff is like glue.)
Firstly, take a minute to consider whether you’re actually able to take an Intern on. Do you have enough desk space? Do you have a computer available for them to use? Is there enough interesting work for them to do? Can you commit to being able to have them in the office for a reasonable length of time? Do you have the funds to pay them?
If the answer to all of these questions is yes, then you’ll need to talk to your MP about how it’s going to work. Once they’ve agreed that your idea was brilliant, and you should definitely get an Intern, then it’s time to talk about all the technical stuff like pay.
It is always a good idea to talk to other MPs’ staff too, to hear about their experiences and handy hints.
Important: Do you have a computer which people on work experience or internships can use?
Be aware, that if your office has only computers supplied by PDS (formerly PICT), whether they be loaned or purchased, there is no longer a facility for a ‘guest, ‘local’ or ‘admin’ login, so people who do not have both security clearance and a network account will not be able to access those computers at all. As most of the work in an MP’s office involves using a computer, this restriction will affect the type of task you are able to give to the student/volunteer/Intern, and may be a deciding factor in whether or not you can offer a work experience placement at all, particularly if it is just for one or two weeks. For students on a longer work placement, e.g. a few months, you can apply for security clearance and a network account through the normal channels; they do not need to be formally employed to apply for these.
For information about security clearance for people on work experience check ParliNet.
“Interns should be recruited in broadly the same way as regular employees of an organisation, with proper consideration given to how their skills and qualifications fit with the tasks they will be expected to fulfil. Recruitment should be conducted in an open and rigorous way to enable fair and equal access to available internships. The job advertisement should give a clear indication of how long the internship will last, and at interview, the Intern should be told honestly whether there is a real chance of obtaining a full-time contract.”
Now you need to advertise and, as chance might have it, you’re in the right place. Take a look at some of the existing adverts on W4MP, and it shouldn’t be too hard to write something along similar lines. Just make sure you are really clear about the important things like where the internship is based, and what expenses are covered.
It’s important to advertise nationally, and as widely as possible. As well as W4MP, you might want to look at third sector jobs boards or advertise locally in your constituency.
Assuming you’ve got your morally, ethically and legally sound advert up, the applications should come flooding in and you can enjoy the power-trip of picking over people’s CVs and pretending to be Alan Sugar.
One word of caution though – to save your applicants sweating over the refresh button of their inbox, try to acknowledge receipt of all applications and let them know roughly when they’ll hear back from you. There’s really no excuse for just never getting back to applicants; if they didn’t get it, they’d rather just know.
“Interns should receive a proper induction to the organisation they enter to allow them to fully integrate. Whether joining a large organisation, or an SME, an Intern just entering the job market may find the workplace intimidating. It is important to introduce an Intern to the staff and the values of the organisation to help them integrate into the team, and allow them to hit the ground running.”
Make sure your shiny new Intern is clear about the kinds of things they might be doing, the hours you’d like them to work (although, again, this must be flexible if you aren’t paying) and the expenses/pay they’ll get.
It might be useful to have a short guide to post out to them before they start explaining a bit about how the office runs, what they might be doing, and a quick introduction to life in Parliament and your constituency. It sounds like a lot of work, but it will save you time in the long run when you realise on week three that they’ve been telling everyone on the phone that your constituency is Barnsley, not Burnley, or when they run out of the building screaming the first time the division bell rings.
If you have a current Intern, this can be an interesting task for them to do; to write a guide of everything they wished they knew before starting!
Most importantly, get their pass application in ASAP! The sooner it’s in the better, and usually the applications are processed in 5 working days. You are not allowed to bring them in as visitors and escort them around if they are coming to work, and it is a serious breach of security to do so. No matter what you’ve read in their CV or whether you know them personally, without the full background and Counter Terrorism Check you could be unwittingly letting someone with nefarious intentions into Parliament.
“Organisations should ensure there is a dedicated person(s) who has ring-fenced time in their work schedule to supervise the Intern and conduct regular performance reviews. This person should provide ongoing feedback to the Intern, be their advocate and mentor during the period of internship, and conduct a formal performance review to evaluate the success of their time with the organisation.”
If you can arrange their first day to be one when your MP isn’t in, that makes things a lot easier. Then you can show them around when your workload is a little lighter, and they can feel a little bit more like they know what they’re doing before the big boss is watching.
Things to do on the first day:
Tour. Try to book them on an official tour. Your ‘fact’ about Michael Jackson trying to buy the throne in the House of Lords might be funny, but probably not that much use when they suddenly have to show your MP’s nephew around the palace and all the tours are fully booked. See our guide on Tours here: https://w4mp.org/w4mp/w4mp-guides/guides-to-parliament/tours-of-the-houses-of-parliament/
Show them around the building. It sounds silly, but if you don’t tell them where the loo is, you might find you have a very shy Intern in inexplicable agony. Make sure they know where they can get food, where the kitchen is, the Post Office, Vote Office, cash points, Travel Office, Whips’ Office, Members’ Centre, and anywhere else you go on a regular basis, including the Sports and Social Club.
Introduce them to people. Make sure your Intern gets to meet lots of other new Interns. Perhaps you can arrange to go for lunch with a few other researchers and their interns, or go to the Sports and Social Club for their first taste of parliamentary gin.
It’s also a good idea to introduce them to someone outside of the office that your Intern can talk to if they have a problem. There should always be someone other than you and your MP that they can talk to should they be unhappy with any aspect of their internship.
This would also seem a logical point to let your Intern know about their right to union representation. Unite has an active Parliamentary Staff Branch which represents staff both in Westminster and in the constituencies.
Give them some work to do. The best way to learn is generally by doing, so there’s no reason why they can’t get to work fairly quickly. Just make sure that you’re always there to answer lots of questions for them, and be patient.
Members Staff Register. All Interns who are issued with a pass valid for more than three months are obliged to sign the Register Of Interests Of Members’ Secretaries And Research Assistants. Remind them that if they receive a bursary or any other financial or material benefit, they may need to record it in the Members’ Staff Register, subject to the relevant thresholds. The Member would also need to record any bursary in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. The staff of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards are very approachable and helpful, so don’t hesitate to give them a call if you’re not sure of anything.
So you made it through the first day without them thinking that you’re entirely incompetent and trying to perform a coup in the office. Congratulations.
From herein it’s really not that hard. Just talk to your Intern a LOT. Make sure you always know what work they’re doing, how it’s going and if it’s too hard or too easy. The worst thing would be to get to the end of the first week and find that they misunderstood something right at the start and all their work needs re-doing.
“During their time with an organisation interns should be treated with exactly the same degree of professionalism and duty of care as regular employees. They should not be seen as ‘visitors’ to the organisation, or automatically assigned routine tasks that do not make use of their skills. Organisations should make some allowance for interns to, on occasion, attend job interviews or complete study requirements.”
Having an Intern can be brilliant. To make sure that you get the most out of it, talk to them before they arrive about what they’re particularly good at and what they enjoy. Maybe they love web design and would be great at starting up your website. Or perhaps they love working with kids and would be brilliant at giving some school tours. Whatever it is, find that talent, and make the most of it. That way you’ll get something valuable, and they will enjoy their experience a whole lot more.
As well as the obvious pleasure your Intern will have in working with you, Parliament itself is a pretty great place to work, and you should make sure your Intern has time to enjoy it. Here’s my quick checklist for things they should be able to do while they’re here:
These are only a few suggestions. Some might not be possible in your office, but you get the picture. It helps to have a physical checklist of things your Intern wants to do before they leave, to make sure that you don’t reach the last week and have to try to cram everything in all at once.
“As a bare minimum the organisation should cover any necessary work-related expenses incurred by the Intern. This includes travel to and from work, and any travel costs incurred whilst attending external meetings/events. If an internship is unpaid and provides only expenses, then the internship should be no longer than four months.”
It is essential at this point to do the serious bit, and consult National Minimum Wage legislation. This legislation exists to protect people from working for insufficient wages or for free. It’s really important, not only from a moral point of view, but also because if you break it you, or your MP, could end up in court. However, don’t worry; it’s pretty easy to understand. If the opportunity you’re advertising fits the criteria, you must pay at least minimum wage. If not, you don’t. Simple. Have a look at these:
You also need to make sure you remember what you’re advertising for! An Intern is not a member of staff, not a skivvy, not a diary manager or professional tea-maker. An unpaid internship must, by law, not have set hours or roles. So if you’re not going to pay them, your Intern needs to know that they can come and go at different hours to you should they need to, and you can’t rely on them to run the office. You may reimburse reasonable basic travel and subsistence expenditure for your registered volunteers. You should ask your Intern to keep all of the receipts for lunch and travel, so that you can submit them to IPSA. This expenditure will come out of your Staffing Allowance.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is responsible for payment of business costs to MPs and their staff. Look at its website to learn more about what it does.
If you’re paying your Intern, you’ll need to provide them with a proper contract of employment. If you’re not able to pay your Intern, it’s still important to make sure they know what to expect from the internship, and what you can get in return. See the info below about IPSA and their IPSA Model Volunteer Agreement.
It is important that you read their guidance . There is a distinction between ‘Employed Interns’ and ‘Volunteers’ and, if you are paying your Intern less than National Minimum Wage, you should read their Model Volunteer Agreement. You might also find it helpful to put ‘Intern’ into the search facility on the IPSA website; there are a number of other useful references.
On completion of their internship organisations should provide interns with a certificate/reference letter detailing the work they have undertaken, the skills and experience acquired, and the content of the formal performance review conducted at the end of the internship. Interns should also be offered the opportunity to give feedback on their experience in an ‘exit interview’, giving organisations the opportunity to reflect on its own performance in delivering internships.
So, your Intern is leaving. By now, you’re probably inseparable, and you’re sure you saw the shine of a tear in your MP’s eye as they set off for the constituency after saying that last goodbye. Or perhaps it’s all been a bit more professional and stiff-upper-lip than that. But however it went, it’s important to end an internship with as much thought as it began. Your Intern needs a proper evaluation of how the internship went, either through a meeting with you or with your MP, so that they can come away with some positive feedback and areas for development. You might also be able to help them if they’re job-hunting in Parliament, or by providing references.
So by now you are an expert manager, your CV is gold-plated, and you just made an Intern pretty happy. You probably have just enough time to give yourself a quick pat on the back before starting to sift through that next pile of CVs…
From the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) ‘Internships that work – a guide for employers‘: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/guides/internships-employers-guide.aspxFor information on short-term work experience placements for school pupils or college students, please see our page on ‘Organising Work Experience in an MP’s Office‘
w4mp is not able to investigate complaints about MPs or the House of Commons. Please do not send complaints or personal information to w4mp, as we will not be able to assist.
There are two organisations which deal with complaints about Members of Parliament:
You may wish to contact the House of Commons Enquiry Service for further advice on how to make a complaint.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards will investigate allegations that an MP has broken the Code of Conduct and the rules associated with it. These include for example rules about:
The Commissioner will not investigate complaints about:
Further information can be found here: https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-financial-interests/parliamentary-commissioner-for-standards/complaints-and-investigations/
http://www.parliamentarycompliance.org.uk/
The post of Compliance Officer for IPSA was established by the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, as amended by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
The Compliance Officer’s remit is defined in statute and is to:
As the Compliance Officer’s role is confined to matters pertaining to the Scheme, he has no power to investigate complaints that pre-date the creation of IPSA in May 2010. Complaints regarding expense claims prior to May 2010 are usually handled by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
The Twitter account @TheyWorkForYou tweets out what’s happened in Parliament, with links to each day’s debates. Useful if you want alerts on what’s going on in the House…
A guide for those who work for an MP
Last updated: 5 February 2020
This guide is for MPs’ staff who spend some or all of their time working from home….or are thinking of doing so.
According to the TUC, 3.5 million people in the UK now work from home as work patterns change rapidly and technology progresses to allow for more flexible forms of employment . Working from home can have huge benefits, including less stress and lower transport costs but you may find it more difficult to separate work and family life or motivate yourself outside the office environment.
The rules – and the things you need to think about – are very different if you’re a home-worker or a freelance contractor.
Our guide is in three parts:
Part 1 – Background information and advice
A lot of the on-line information about working from home talks about ‘teleworkers’ because it’s assumed that you will be using a computer and Internet connection to interact with your office, and much of the advice is about how to set these systems up and work with them. But there is a lot of good general advice for anyone who is trying to work from home.
ACAS: https://www.acas.org.uk/making-a-flexible-working-request
ACAS: https://www.acas.org.uk/lets-talk-flexible-working
GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working
Health & Safety Executive: https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg226.pdf
HMRC information on working from home costs: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32760
The Telework Association www.tca.org.uk – provides advice on how to approach teleworking, information on technology, examples of how other people progress.
If you’re working from home you’ll have to avoid the temptations of daytime TV – not a challenge, you may think, but never underestimate the appeal of a guest-filled sofa when work is dull. If you must watch something then Politics Live is a reasonable compromise – and this 2006 online guide to working from home may even give you some useful tips. There is also an even older, but still interesting, news report on the trend to home working at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3645475.stm.
Finally, don’t forget to take good care of your computer and secure your Internet connection. A the time of writing (October 2023) there is information on flexible working from the House of Lords on ParliNet.
You can access the Parliamentary Network from your own equipment and instructions on remote working are available.
There is advice for constituency offices on ParliNet.
You should ensure that your home or mobile technology is secure and there is advice on cyber-security on Parlinet.
Part 2 – Working from Home – How to make it work –
words of wisdom from an experienced staff member
I work for an MP and am a mother of three with 20 years experience in Parliament. I have found that my job is pretty much full time and that it’s just as easy to do the letters on a laptop at home as it is at the office in Westminster. Of course e-mail can be a curse in the sense that people can contact you the whole time but the beauty of it is that you can respond from wherever you are.
The work involves a fantastic quantity of e-mails, angry telephone calls, boring routine work etc… I know I am not alone in facing this kind of challenge because the British work the longest hours of any European nation and we have more women in the workforce than any European country.
Modern-day thinking is all about encompassing home life and office life; therefore working from home has increased. Some big employers have made ‘working to enhance their employees work/life balance’ a central tenet of their employment philosophy. Many employees carve out a job working partly from office and home and remain on call ‘out of hours’ providing vital extra back-up. Also, the general trend is towards more flexibility in the workplace and working from home in a part-time capacity.
Whatever situation you might be in I hope this guide will be useful in providing you with the tools and, most importantly, the confidence to work effectively from home. After much trial and error here are my tips for how to make your life easier.
1) Clarify your role within your office – whatever your job title you will be expected to provide the whole range of support required. You will have to manage the office and deal with day-to-day business just as you would from any other conventional office set-up. There will be visitors to direct and telephone enquiries to handle. e-mails and letters will still be coming in thick and fast. The diary will need to be managed and engagements arranged. All this can be managed working remotely away from base camp, but you need to establish clear boundaries and make sure everyone understands and respects them.
2) Establish a proven work record. To achieve your aims of effective work from home you will need to prove that you can provide all the support your MP will need: whether it be photocopying, filing or more demanding research and case work. You will need abundant goodwill and be able to sail through the dramas and complications that can arise in an MP’s office.
3) Plan ahead. You must decide what personality type you are: it helps to be a good planner if you hope to work from home. You must have a strong planning focus and have a sound balance that will help give you a clear vision of where you want to get to and achieve. You must advise all those around you – your boss, colleagues, friends and family about your commitment to work efficiently from home.
4) Efficient delivery. As a remote worker you must be a great encourager – you will have cut your organisational teeth in the MP’s office and now see yourself ready to concentrate on serious service delivery. You must put a high priority on forging positive relationships with colleagues and establish a reputation of efficient delivery so your track record will speak for itself. You will find that added success brings added pressure and you have got to handle it. There is a lot of give and take in an MP’s business but they are an easy target and you must be able to cope with anything that comes your way.
5) Up to date technology. The key to success in working from home is the smooth running of the designated ‘MP staff office’. You will need to structure your work environment and integrate your work priorities to function just as easily from the office as from home. Ensuring that you are equipped to a high standard is essential to the day-to-day business of running constituency work.
Working Effectively
Amazingly, Parliamentary work can be just as effective from home, as at the constituency or Westminster office.
It’s a significant undertaking that must be supported from your boss down to ensure the right level of partnership and co-operation.
The major challenge will be to get across simply and effectively that you are working remotely and ready to deal with any issue, however complex. You will have a framework in place to cope with all the key jobs required by your MP.
The great outcome is that you will be dealing with a lot of stuff working remotely as distinct from home base, and most people will not know the difference.
In a working-from-home environment there will be difficult times ahead, but, with the right attitude, I believe working from home can become, and be seen to become, a thriving workplace.
| Tips for working from home | |
| 1 | Mail re-direct. Members’ Post Office: x 4639 or use the Redirection form |
| 2 | Separate phone line for modem/broadband/internet |
| 3 | Contact Telephone Supervisor in The Commons for number divert: x 6161 and/or have an office mobile phone. |
| 4 | Keep duplicate stocks of all stationery, ministerial responsibilities book, copy of entire office address book. All of these should be available on the intranet too. |
| 5 | Technology – you will need a computer and a printer. You may wish to invest in a small copier or multifunction printer; Phone with number display and hands free facility |
| 6 | Troubleshooting tel nos. keep safely to hand: Email problems/connection with parliamentary intranet: x 2001 |
Part 3 – Advice from the House of Commons
This advice on ParliNet relates to remote working in general.
Need some light shedding on this strange term? Here are some definitions.
From Parliament’s own website:
https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/prorogation/
Prorogation marks the end of a parliamentary session. It is the formal name given to the period between the end of a session of Parliament and the State Opening of Parliament that begins the next session. The parliamentary session may also be prorogued when Parliament is dissolved and a general election called.
How is prorogation marked?
The Queen formally prorogues Parliament on the advice of the Privy Council.
Prorogation usually takes the form of an announcement, on behalf of the Queen, read in the House of Lords. As with the State Opening, it is made to both Houses and the Speaker of the House of Commons and MPs attend the Lords Chamber to listen to the speech.
The same announcement is then read out by the Speaker in the Commons. Following this both the House of Commons and House of Lords are officially prorogued and will not meet again until the State Opening of Parliament.
Prorogation announcement
The prorogation announcement sets out the major Bills which have been passed during that session and also describes other measures which have been taken by the Government.
Prorogation: what happens to Bills still in progress?
Prorogation brings to an end nearly all parliamentary business.
However, Public Bills may be carried over from one session to the next, subject to agreement. The first Bill to be treated in this way was the Financial Services and Markets Bill in session 1998-99.
From the BBC’s Politics pages:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/a-z_of_parliament/default.stm
When a parliamentary session comes to an end, Parliament is said to “prorogue” until the next session begins.
Following the prorogation ceremony all outstanding business falls, including early day motions and questions which have not been answered.
Any uncompleted bills have to be re-introduced afresh in the next session.
The power to prorogue Parliament lies with the Queen, who does so on the advice of the Privy Council.
The ceremony
In an echo of the state opening of Parliament, the Speaker and members of the Commons attend the upper chamber where they listen to a speech by the leader of the House of Lords reviewing the session’s work.
By ancient tradition, legislation which has passed all parliamentary stages is given royal assent in Norman French using the words “La Reyne le veult”, which roughly translates as “the Queen wills it”.
The Speaker then returns to the Commons and reads out the same speech.
Following this, the House is officially prorogued and the Commons will not meet again until the next state opening of Parliament.
There’s also some more useful stuff in
House of Commons Factsheet P4 “Sittings of the House” at:
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/p04.pdf
and you can view the most recent prorogation at https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/occasions/prorogation/
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Whips have long had a reputation, whether deserved or not, which shrouds them and their work in mystery. They blend into the crowd and appear to the outsider unobtrusive, the convention being that Government whips do not sign EDMs or table questions to Ministers. Nor do they give media interviews in their capacity as whip; in fact, most of the general public remain blissfully unaware of their existence. It all builds up to a shadowy reputation of concern with only the most lofty and secretive goings on of the House. This Guide is designed for new Researchers and constituency staff to be able to confidently use the word ‘whip’ in everyday conversation – which is, after all, one of the benefits of a job in politics.
Index
‘Keepers of parliament’s dark secrets and custodians of the baubles of public life’ – Jeremy Paxman
Any parliamentary textbook will tell you that the term ‘whip’ is derived from hunting speak; a ‘whipper-in’ whips the hounds to keep them from straying from the pack. It is thought that the use of the term in Parliament goes back to the 18th Century, describing a small group of MPs whose responsibility it is to keep their colleagues toeing the line.
Whips are generally appointed, rather than elected, within their parties; after all, they are charged with promoting the agenda of the leadership, not the backbenchers. Each party leader chooses their Chief Whip, each Chief Whip then chooses his or her deputies.
The job of Government whips is to get the government’s business through the Parliament by making sure that the necessary votes are won. The Opposition doesn’t have any legislation to get through but their job is to make sure that the Leader’s agenda is effectively supported. Whips often describe themselves as a channel of communication between the leadership and the backbenchers, because it is their job to know in advance if anyone is going to vote the ‘wrong’ way – they need to have their feelers out and develop good relations with their flocks, and put them in touch with the relevant minister to discuss concerns before they turn into rebellions.
There is also a strong organisational and procedural element to whip-hood: whips manage Bill Committees and some private business like ten minute rule bills as well as party campaigning.
A who’s who of current whips can be found on the parliament.uk site under MPs, Lords and Offices, Government are here under the list of Treasury ministers, which is technically their department, Opposition here under Opposition Whips.
The Opposition Chief Whip receives a stipend in addition to his normal salary. The Government Chief Whip (and all junior government whips), of course, receive an extra ministerial salary as do all government ministers.
In their article on the recruitment of whips in the House of Commons, Donald Searing and Chris Game seek to identify some common psychological characteristics of those appointed to the post of whip. By asking those who’ve held the post, they conclude that whips must be approachable and good listeners and, where possible, should be able to ‘exercise some authority without getting into too much of a row’. They must also of course be staunch party loyalists, and – perhaps surprisingly – need to know how to remain calm; ‘good whips rarely lose their tempers,’ one of their interviewees told Searing and Game. Tim Renton, Government Chief Whip during Thatcher’s final year, echoes this sentiment: ‘a good whip is not just a sergeant major. He is also a counsellor and a nanny. Giving tea to some and gin and tonic to others, the Chief Whip has an overall responsibility for the health and sanity of his flock.’
The ‘usual channels’ is a phrase you’ll hear now and again. Put simply, it means the ways in which Whips of all parties decide between them how to organise the Business of the House. Although regular meetings take place to discuss Business, the usual channels are mostly a huge spider-web of communication on which the day-to-day bread and butter of the parliamentary timetable rests. Ongoing matters will be discussed and on particular issues, such as a piece of legislation, consultation between whips from all sides will end with deals being struck in an attempt to please all. Until 2010, select committee makeup was discussed and decided via the usual channels but, in the pursuit of transparency, chairs of select committees are now elected by ballot of the whole House. Members are then elected by their parties.
Besides deciding how the Business of the House will run, the other important job of the Whip is to act as go-between for the party’s leadership and its backbenchers. In order to get government Business through, the Government Whips must ensure that the wishes of the leadership are carried out. Practically, they have to make sure their MPs attend important votes and, crucially, get them into the right lobby. At the same time, they must report back to the party leader whether or not new proposals are likely to go down well with the main body of their Members, and if and where pockets of dissent might be brewing. On top of all this, the Whips must maintain links between Government and opposition (via the usual channels). It’s no wonder that Whips have a reputation for quiet omniscience.
‘For the average backbencher, the whip is the street-corner thug they need to get past on their way home from school. Treat him with respect, and life will be fine. If you cross him, watch out’ – Jeremy Paxman
It’s the role of the whip as disciplinarian which tends to attract the most attention, as Rogers and Walter note, ‘much is written and more speculated about the black arts of the whips – their techniques for bringing recalcitrant MPs into line – and of their intelligence gathering’. There are numerous stories bouncing around the Palace of Westminster of the tactics whips will use to influence backbenchers to vote duly. Philip Cowley writes how rumour has it that in past years there existed a Conservative whips’ ‘Black Book’, detailing the financial and sexual misdemeanours of the party’s MPs, used for arm twisting purposes as and when necessary. Speaking in a 1997 debate on the modernisation of the House of Commons, the then MP for Bassetlaw, Joe Ashton, recalled an extreme example of the lengths whips will go to to get their MPs through the lobbies when it really matters:
“I remember the famous case of Leslie Spriggs, the then member for St Helens. We had a tied vote and he was brought to the House in an ambulance having suffered a severe heart attack. The two whips went out to look in the ambulance and there was Leslie Spriggs laid there as though he was dead. I believe that John Stradling Thomas said to Joe Harper, “how do we know that he is alive?” So he leaned forward, turned the knob on the heart machine, the green light went around and he said, “there – you’ve lost, it’s 311.” That is an absolutely true story. It is the sort of nonsense that used to happen. No one believes it, but it is true.” – Joe Ashton, former MP for Bassetlaw.
Whips may of course use the carrot approach, as well as wielding the stick, offering time off, trips abroad and promises of promotion. The Whips are also responsible for deciding who gets which office on the parliamentary estate. The accommodation whips have an arcane negotiation to divvy up the rooms between Labour, Tories, Lib Dems, etc and then each party has its own internal way of allocating. It’s not unknown for the whips to use accommodation and the threat of being moved from a reasonable office to a window-less demountable to encourage party discipline. Says Tim Renton, ‘the ability of the whips to change the minds of their colleagues lies in the fact that they wheel and cajole quietly and behind the scenes.’ However, Philip Cowley reports that there was once, among the Labour whips, what one whip described as a ‘tradition of brutalism’, to the extent that one new whip, on being told to use cerebral powers of persuasion instead had complained, ‘does that mean we can’t beat people up any more?’ Yet most methods of persuasion will be of the subtle type and stories like those above have thankfully become few and far between.
5. Withdrawal and resignation of the whip
Most MPs, most of the time, pose no trouble for their party’s whips. However, issues of discipline arise from time to time, on a scale from an individual MP’s doubts over a prickly issue to a large scale revolt among backbenchers. At the extreme end of the scale, when an MP disagrees with the action of his or her party, he or she may ‘resign’ the whip – in other words, leave the parliamentary party and be no longer subject to its rules. Similarly, if an MP elicits extreme disapproval of their party’s leadership, the party leader may ‘withdraw’ the whip, expelling the MP. In both cases, the MPs remain in post but become effectively independent, no longer expected to follow the whip. Aside from rebellion, personal actions or comment may cause an MP to resign the whip or have it withdrawn. The decision to go to war in Iraq generated a number of such political casualties, with Clare Short and Robin Cook both resigning the whip in protest and with George Galloway having the whip withdrawn after making comments to the press deemed to have brought the party into disrepute. More recently, former minister Denis McShane had the Labour whip withdrawn following a referral from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to the police. Another punishment the party leadership might use is to temporarily suspend a disobedient MP, possibly in advance of a full expulsion. Yes, it’s just like being back in school.
In some instances, the whip is removed from all of a party’s MPs before a vote and MPs are allowed to vote as they see fit. Such votes are called ‘free votes’ and a party’s whips will usually decide to grant a free vote if the issue at hand is one of a matter of conscience – abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment and so on. In 2008, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill eventually generated a series of free votes for all parties, with the Government backing down from a whipped vote at Second Reading to allow a free vote, then insisting on the whip at Third Reading.
An essential tool of communication between each Whips Office and its MPs, the Whip will drop into your inbox every Thursday, once the Business of the House is announced.
The Whip is the essential (and confidential) document your MP needs to be in the voting lobbies at the right time, in order to avoid incurring the wrath of your party’s whips. The Whip tells MPs how important their presence at a particular vote is, by using a three line system. All votes are listed on The Whip and underlined with either one, two or three lines.
One line means that attendance is requested at the vote, but not required. In practical terms, a one-liner means don’t worry about it.
Two lines is used quite rarely – it means you should be there but it’s not quite a three liner. In practical terms, it might be used when a free vote is being held – meaning, we don’t mind how you vote, but please turn up.
A three-line Whip is essential and an MP frankly has no choice but to attend unless he or she has cleared their absence with their whip in advance by handing in an absence request slip with a full explanation and a pleading manner.
It’s keeping the weekly Whip to hand. If your boss is so inclined, you might want to enter the expected timing and details of votes in his or her diary, though this is subject to change with votes occasionally being upgraded or downgraded at short notice. Knowing what’s on the weekly whip is also helpful in that it allows you to organise the diary around expected votes and if your boss is attending an event on the Estate, you can warn the organisers that he or she may suddenly dash off when a loud, rather excruciating bell starts ringing.
It is common practice, if an MP needs to miss a vote, that the Whips will organise between themselves to ‘pair’ that MP with an MP of another party voting the opposite way, thus cancelling each other out. This system means that MPs, especially Ministers who may be busy or outside of London, can miss votes without upsetting the outcome. This allows, for example, MPs to be absent for important family or constituency events, or a minister to take an overseas trip. Of course, for votes expected to be very close or contentious, the gloves come off.
8. Whips in the House of Lords
Whips are used in the House of Lords but their role differs slightly, party discipline being a more complex issue due to a lack of elections and a substantial number of non-aligned cross-benchers.
They have their own website – www.lordswhips.org.uk – which Peers can use to remotely-access information, and sign up to speak in debates, without actually having to visit the House.
9. References and suggested further reading
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST, for short) has been producing impartial, non-partisan, and peer-reviewed briefing notes for over thirty years on various subjects which may be of interest to Members and staffers.
POST is the UK Parliament’s in-house source of independent, balanced and accessible analysis of public policy issues related to science and technology. Their aim is to inform parliamentary debate.
More information and the full list of POSTnotes can be found on the main POST site here: https://post.parliament.uk/
Their work programme covers:
Their analysis covers:
All publications (since 1995) are available in PDF format. To sign up for their mailing list, please click here: https://mailchi.mp/email.parliament.uk/post
POST also hosts seminars and training events, details of which can be found here: https://post.parliament.uk/events/
A simple list of all the MPs currently elected to Parliament is available on the public website:
https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons and you can search by name or by constituency. If you need to update your Member’s details, please email [email protected]
There is a much more detailed facility available on the Parliamentary intranet – the Members Names Information Service (MNIS) is a House database which lists Members details for the Commons and Lords.
It gives an overview of the current state of the parties, lists of current and previous members, includes biographical information, the register of Commons and of Lords Interests and includes a list of staff employed in the Lords. You should also contact MNIS to update your Member’s or Peer’s biography pages (email [email protected])
You can also view the Library’s research paper Members 1979-2010, which lists all of the Members during that time period in alphabetical order, and includes brief biographical details.
Downloadable lists of contact details for MPs and Peers
Those on the intranet should also visit the Commons Library site and check out Dods People (just look in the A-Z listing) which gives a full bio of each MP and a profile of their constituency. It also allows you to export a CSV of the contact details of all MPs, MSPs, AMs, MLAs and Peers.