Congratulations to Alex Sobel, who won The Climate Coalition’s Green Heart Award for Greenest MP last night. Sobel’s reign doesn’t get off to a great start when his register of interest shows he took £9,700 from big pro-fracking union GMB during the election…
Not that the Leeds North West MP inherits the title from a saint. Minister Simon Clarke won the Climate Coalition’s 2019 award, and one month later took a £4,300 private helicopter flight from London to Teesside for a dinner to raise funds for the 2020 Tees Valley mayoral campaign. Google informs Guido helicopters use three times as much fuel as driving…
The new Labour MP for Jarrow, Kate Osborne, has been accused of trying to exploit prospective parliamentary staffers after putting up a job listing for a ‘Senior Caseworker’ which goes well beyond the typical list of responsibilities for the role. One current staffer described it as being “senior caseworker and researcher and office manager” all rolled into one, for no extra pay…
Kerri Prince, who is a Labour councillor and staffer for Alex Cunningham MP, said merely reading the job description gave her “burnout”, and commented that “A staff member would not get through this list of work even if they worked 8 days a week” before going on to alert the Unite union to the listing. Labour MP, Alex Sobel, and former MP Anna Turley, have also criticised the listing…
The full list of responsibilities the Labour MP is asking for – for as little as £27,324 a year – are:
- Analyse, evaluate and interpret data to ensure the Member is accurately informed on key issues and is aware of trends
- Attend surgeries, tribunals and meetings as appropriate
- Develop knowledge in specialist areas
- Ensure all cases are logged; monitor progress and ensure all identified actions are taken
- Ensure records are kept and information managed confidentially and in line with the Data Protection Act
- Follow up on social media queries and comments
- Gather relevant information to resolve or progress cases
- Liaise with Government agencies, voluntary sector and others to resolve constituency matters
- Manage and progress portfolio of casework appropriately
- Manage projects
- Manage the MP’s website contents
- Monitor media coverage, liaise with media, prepare press releases as required (on constituency, non-party political matters)
- Prepare media briefings
- Proactive and re-active communications with all media
- Provide briefings for the MP
- Publicise the Member’s parliamentary duties on Social Media
- Research local, regional or national issues to support MPs’ work
- Respond to routine correspondence and enquiries from constituents, the media, lobbyists and pressure groups
- Supervise other members of staff
- Take initial action on queries from members of the public, including responding on behalf of the MP as appropriate
As ever with Labour, on workers’ rights it’s ‘do as I say and not as I do’…
On Sunday the Labour Party told Channel 4 News that they “never spent any mone y putting volunteers up in hotels during tours” in the general election. Channel 4 reported that “so far no evidence has emerged to contradict them”. Until now…
On April 20 2015, Eddie Izzard travelled to Leeds North West to campaign on behalf of Labour candidate Alex Sobel. As you can see above, Izzard had pictures taken with the candidate, in front of posters bearing the candidate’s name. There can be no doubt this was local campaigning…
Yet the invoice above shows Labour’s national campaign paid for Izzard’s hotel in Leeds on April 20. This is a flagrant breach of the rules – Izzard was an activist who campaigned for a local candidate, so his hotel bill should have been declared as part of the candidate’s local spend. It also shows Labour’s claim that they never put activists up in hotels to be untrue. Just because Izzard is a celebrity doesn’t mean he isn’t an activist, the rules still apply…
