Hi, I'm Anouche, and I'm Zoe, and you're listening to the New Statesman's twice-weekly Politics

podcast. On today's episode, we find out what it's like to work for an MP and why parliamentary

staffers are thinking of going on strike. On today's New Statesman podcast, we're discussing

the life and working conditions of MPs staff. A few weeks ago, Lee Anderson, a Tory MP and

now deputy chair of the party, tweeted a picture of one of his employees that caused outrage

online when he said, she earned less than 30k, spent £120 a month on commuting and rented

in central London, but did not need to use a food bank. And I should say that I did contact

his office to ask him about his staff turnover, but we didn't get a reply. Since then, MPs

staff represented by the United Union have been discussing a strike ballot after rejecting

a 4.9% pay offer, which they called woefully inadequate. And I should just note before we

start that there are different types of employment in Parliament. There are staff who are employed

by Parliament, like the House of Commons clerks and admin staff and members of staff employed

by individual MPs. Today, we're joined by some staff who work for MPs, Jenny Simmons,

senior researcher for a labour MP and chair of the GMB branch for members staff and

Holly Brazier, tope, senior researcher for a labour MP and workplace rep for the GMB branch

for members staff. Thanks so much for joining us, both of you.

Great to be here. So, before we get into the meat of the topic, why don't you tell us a bit

about yourselves how long you've been working in Parliament? Actually, we've been working

in Parliament around the same time because Holly and I met in our first month. So, yeah,

I started in June 2018. So I've been there almost five years and I've worked for five MPs

in that time. And so, yeah, I started a similar time like July 2018 and I have worked for two

different MPs, both for about two and a half years. Great, and why don't you tell us a little

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