Parliamentary Socialisation by Michael Rush & Philip Giddings

Author:Michael Rush & Philip Giddings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Parliamentary careers and ministerial ambitions

In examining the attitudes of newly elected MPs and the extent to which they are socialised into attitudes similar to those of their longer-serving colleagues, it is important to take account of the likely length of their parliamentary careers and whether they have ministerial ambitions. In principle, the longer a Member’s parliamentary career the greater the potential for socialisation, whereas regarding election to Parliament as the beginning of a short parliamentary career might tend to reduce the impact of socialisation. Similarly, ministerial ambitions might encourage the new MP to greater conformity to win the favour of the party leadership by establishing a reputation as a loyal and reliable supporter of the party; lack of or the repudiation of such ambitions might encourage less conformity.

As we have already seen from our data, with few exceptions, newly elected MPs accept that being an MP is a full time job in terms of its demands. This is part of the professionalisation of the role of the Member, a process further reflected in the level of MPs’ salaries and the range of allowances and facilities provided. It is also reflected in the length of parliamentary careers: most MPs are elected between the ages of 35 and 45 and most end their Commons’ careers by retiring at or around 65. Of course, some have their parliamentary lives cut short by electoral defeat, but the number varies considerably from election to election. In three of the four elections between 1992 and 2005, for example, the number of MPs retiring outnumbered those defeated, but the massive swing to Labour in 1997 resulted in 132 MPs being defeated compared with 117 retiring. Of those defeated, no fewer than 126 were Conservatives, nearly twice the number retiring.18 Some of those defeated are later re-elected in a by-election or a subsequent general election, but most are unsuccessful in persuading local parties to select them, often on grounds of age.19 In short, most MPs begin their parliamentary careers a bit later than a normal career, serve on average about 20–25 years and then retire at about normal retirement age. As part of that career a significant minority achieve ministerial office or at least opposition frontbench status.

We were therefore interested in finding out how long our respondents expected to remain MPs and whether they hoped to achieve ministerial office. However, because the 1992 and 1997 intakes have been affected by different circumstances regarding the electoral status of their constituencies and whether their parties were in government or opposition, it makes sense to deal with the two intakes separately.

The 1992 intake

In the general election of 1992 there was a 3 per cent swing from Conservative to Labour,20 resulting in a net gain for Labour of 42 seats. In the run-up to the election, Labour had expected and had been expected to win, ending 13 years of Conservative rule, but in the event the Conservatives won and Labour had to wait another five years before coming to power.21

The electoral status22

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.