“My heart would sink a bit,” said Alex Gordon Shute, a headhunter of 23 years, when I asked her how she would feel if the 66 (and counting) Conservative MPs stepping down ahead of the general election all came looking for work at once. “They’re a very eclectic group of characters. It’s not a skill set that means all of them can reincarnate the same way.”
Gordon Shute, along with two academics, Prof Meg Russell and Jane Roberts, gave evidence two years ago to a little-noticed parliamentary committee, which resulted in Charles Walker’s report Smoothing the Cliff Edge: Supporting MPs at Their Point of Departure from Elected Office. On its own terms, the question of departing MPs is both pretty niche – we’re talking about a problem for 300 people, tops – and an occasion for tiny, tiny violins, yet there are details that speak volumes about the state of the Conservative party, that of the Commons more broadly and the relationship between civil society and its elected representatives.
