Redundancy Payouts For Losing MPs "Not Enough", Says Ousted Tory
The Conservative former MP for Bracknell, Jame Sunderland, who lost his seat in the summer's general election (Alamy)
6 min read
The money given to former MPs who lose their seats should be bigger to help them adjust to life post-Parliament, according to a Conservative defeated in July’s General Election.
Current rules means individuals who lose their seats are eligible for redundancy payments equivalent to four months worth of wages, as well as loss of office payments dependent on how long MPs have served in the House of Commons.
But James Sunderland, who was the Tory MP for Bracknell from 2019 to the summer, told The Rundown podcast from PoliticsHome that was “not enough”.
The ex-Army colonel said: “I'm happy to say that on the record, no way. The reason why it's not enough is because if you are unemployed, it's very hard getting a job.
"The easiest way of getting a job is to be in a job, and we knew that. It's off a cliff. You’ve got to pick yourself up from from base zero and start all over again.
“In my case, 26 years in the Army, four-and-a-half years as an MP, I'd never been unemployed. I've never had a CV. I never was on LinkedIn, this is stuff we have to do from complete scratch.
“But also, it was about managing, not just the physical reality of losing your job overnight and your seat, also managing the emotional side of it, which is very difficult.”
The payouts, known as ‘winding down payments’, were doubled from two months wages to four last year by IPSA, the independent body that deals with parliamentary pay and expenses, after a House of Commons committee reported many MPs “find themselves on a financial and career cliff edge following the loss of employment”.
Sunderland was speaking alongside two of his former colleagues, the ex-Tory MPs Vicky Ford and Matt Warman, about adjusting to life after defeat in Labour’s landslide victory.
He told the podcast: “I found the process and the experience of losing my seat much more profound than I thought it would be. And of course, when you lose your job, you lose your community, you lose something that you've worked very hard to get to you lose your constituents.
“Having worked so hard for Bracknell, it was very difficult.”
Revealing he is planning to try and stand again for Parliament, the 54-year-old said: “There's unfinished business for me, and I'm very happy to tell people locally that I want to be the next MP in Bracknell, but for me, personally, the reality right now is dealing with the trauma, dealing with the loss, dealing with the sense of community loss.
“I had to fire five staff. That was very difficult, but it's about now putting food on the table, getting a job and being able to provide for my family in a way that I've done for the last 30 years of my working life.”
Ford agreed about the difficulties facing those defeated in July, saying it was a “very traumatic election”, saying many of her former colleagues feel a “sense of loss”, and there could be more support for those struggling to move forward.
She said she hasn’t been actively looking for a new job yet “partly there's only so much rejection you can take”, adding: “Getting kicked out of your your seat by your constituents is quite a lot of rejection, and also partly because I decided I wanted to spend some time with the family.”
Warman, who had been the MP for his Lincolnshire seat since 2015, agreed that the transition from public figure has been tricky.
“Being an MP can define absolutely every aspect of who you are, you’re never off-duty,” he told the podcast.
“I remember going to the market in Boston on a Saturday in 2016, and someone saying 'it’s so nice to see you out campaigning', even though it's after the election.
“I was like 'no, I'm not out campaigning, I am going to eat these tomatoes, this is real life.'
"But it did really bring home that there is not a moment when you are legitimately off-duty, and all of a sudden when I still go to Boston Market and still buy tomatoes, you are a different person.
“You're a different person in your own eyes, and in the eyes of people who are looking at you.”
Ex-minister Vicky Ford lost her Chelmsford seat in July's election (UK Parliament)
He said there has been “much greater awareness of the emotional impact on staff and on MPs”, adding that it “does affect some people very profoundly, not least because you go from being incredibly busy to being incredibly unemployed, the contrast is really stark”.
While there has been improved support for departing MPs in terms of finding a new job, the ex-minister warned many of his former colleagues might struggle to find the sorts of jobs normally available to former Parliamentarians.
“The world has definitely moved on from the days when having an ex-MP or an ex-minister on the board of a company was just seen as a prestigious, nice-to-have that was worth paying for,” Warman said.
"It is also definitely true that if you were applying to, particularly the sorts of jobs that lots of MPs end up going for, all sorts of public affairs jobs still in politics, that just as a Labour government has taken office, the value of an ex-Tory minister, or ex-Tory MP has, has just taken something of a hit.”
Former MP Matt Warman lost his Boston and Skegness seat to Reform (UK Parliament)
Sunderland agreed that politics also plays a role in trying to get a job outside the Commons, saying he has been rejected for roles because he was an ex-Conservative MP.
“I have been turned down for jobs over the last three months, jobs which I was perfect for”, he said.
“In one particular case, the person wanting to hire me said that I would just be too divisive in the workplace at this point in time, despite perhaps being one of the least-divisive MPs in Westminster over the last four and a half years.”
He said another colleague had a job offer withdrawn over their former role in the Commons, adding: “You can be branded. Having ex-Tory MP after your name is a negative thing, and I'd be very happy to admit now that my military network has been far, far better for me over the last three months than my political network has been.”
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