Hello and welcome to How Westminster Works, a podcast from Politics Home that takes a deep dive into the history, quirks and peculiar practices of UK politics.

I'm your host Alan Tolhurst, and on this week's episode, we'll be looking at how a normal member of the public makes the leap from their day job to the House of Commons to become an MP. We spoke to journalists, plus former and prospective parliamentary candidates vying

to stand at the next election about how different political parties go about selecting future

representatives at Parliament, and what works and what doesn't work about the process.

Pretty much anyone can run to be an independent MP when there's an election or

by-election. You just need to be over 18 years old, a UK citizen, and not currently hold a politically

restricted role, such as a police officer, civil servant or a judge. Once you've paid the

£500 deposit, your name can go on the ballot paper and you're free to campaign. Be warned warned though, you will lose that 500 pounds if you don't get at least 5% of the votes,

which realistically means convincing hundreds, if not thousands of people, to vote for you.

But if you want to have a good chance of actually getting elected and keeping your deposit,

the best way is to run as a candidate for one of the main parties in the commons, such as Labor, the Conservatives,

the Lib Dems or the SNP. Each party has a slightly different process for how they pick

candidates ahead of the general election. Broadcaster and veteran political journalist Michael

Crick explains the basics of each system are largely the same. He has been following this election

process closely and has even started a Twitter account called Tomorrow's MPs to share information about the process.

These days, generally we'll have a meeting of the membership, so members in that area,

which may range from just a few dozen people to a 3,000 people,

will be invited along to a meeting to consider the shortlist of candidates.

But before, the shortlist will have been whittled down

from a wider number of people.

I mean, sometimes hundreds of people apply

to be the candidate in a safe seat.

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