Marr: Westminster has recruitment problem
Westminster could be facing a recruitment problem, according to the BBC’s political editor Andrew Marr.
He has warned that high quality potential MPs are in short supply with many talented people preferring to stay in better paid private sector jobs.
In a speech to Personnel Today’s HR Directors Club, Mr Marr said that miserable years as a backbencher and few chances of getting into cabinet are putting off quality candidates.
On top of this, their private lives will probably come under scrutiny from the press and public.
Mr Marr said: “We desperately need more good people in politics. It is depressing to see the young people coming in with no [relevant] experience.”
He warned: “It’s a volatile [political scene] and it will affect your business. There is a good chance within this year that we will have a new Prime Minister.
“The Labour party is worried about what is going to happen. It feels its huge majority is going to slashed significantly.”
Despite many commentators predicting a third big majority for Labour, Mr Marr said he thought the election night results would be “odder than the commentators think at the moment.”
He added that both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats could make significant gains.
MPs earn a basic salary of £57,000, plus expenses. Figures for MPs expenses, released for the first time in October, showed that MPs claimed an average of £118,437 each in expenses.
There are currently 22 cabinet seats, with cabinet ministers earning around £130,000 as a basic salary. The Prime Minister earns around £178,000. In addition, there are just under 100 government positions, not all of which attract any extra salary. With 659 MPs in the current Parliament, there are significantly more personnel than posts.
In comparison, top business executives regularly earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a year – plus bonuses – with packages topping £1 million.
