Tag Archives: lib dem staff

In praise of our MPs’ office managers

By Andrew Emmerson | Wed 16th October 2024 - 2:21 pm

Within politics, there are lots of under-appreciated groups. People who work tirelessly to ensure that the roadshow goes on, so that those front and centre can walk, run and sprint to victory. Be it the campaign organisers and their hoardes of volunteers pushing paper through letterboxes, or the tech people running important communication methods, or the spouses, partners and confidantes who prop up tired candidates ready to fall.

Yet I want to throw my own special shout-out to another group, the MPs’ staff. I’m very privileged to have worked in one capacity or another for a number of our party’s illustrious MPs in both campaigns and as parliamentary staff. This is not a shout-out to me, or a self-congratulating pat on the back though. I want to pay tribute to the new Office Managers, Caseworkers, Personal Assistants and Media Officers who are now filling the offices of our newly-elected MPs.

I am lucky that when I started in this job, there was already a set way of working that I could adapt to, and could adapt to me. Yet since the election, 57 new office managers have been hired to get MPs on their feet. Bravely taking over single-handedly where campaigns left off. They’ve been the ones wrestling with the leviathan of MPs’ inboxes, hiring staff, finding new office spaces, helping their bosses find new London accommodation, wandering lonely through the IPSA labyrinth of expenses.

I am fortunate to help to co-ordinate (yet another) WhatsApp community bringing together caseworkers and office managers, and the battles they’ve faced to establish new MPs in their communities quickly, quietly and efficiently should be very strongly applauded.