MPS have it easy, don’t they? They have a decent salary, generous expenses and a cushy number even if they lose their seat at the general election. The widespread perception is that, once rejected by the electorate, most former MPs will simply swan into a lucrative job in the private sector - a seat on a board perhaps, or a well-paid consultancy.

But how true is that picture really? There may have been some truth in it before the general election of 2010, and it is certainly true that some ex-MPs have made a comfortable living, but the expenses scandal of 2009 changed everything. The reputation of parliamentarians suffered a sudden decline and those MPs who lost their seats in 2010 were the first to feel the effects. In years gone by, they might have expected to have had the pick of jobs, but a year after the general election, one in ten of them were still unemployed.

 

The Herald: The taxpayer faces a bill of up to £40 million to keep the famous "bongs" of Big Ben soundingIn the years since then, there have also been few signs of the reputation of MPs recovering – quite the opposite in fact, with a survey by The Herald showing just how hard it has been for the Scottish MPs who lost their seats last May to move on. The survey shows that seven months after losing to the SNP, few of the defeated MPs have found full-time work and many of those who spoke to The Herald cited the low reputation of parliamentarians as an explanation.

The second part of The Herald’s research also shows just how hard many of the MPs who lost in May are finding life after the Commons. Some, such as Anne Begg, the former Labour MP for Aberdeen South, who is 60 and disabled, have no plans to do full-time work, but others are looking for work, with little luck. A few of them, such as former Scottish Secretary and Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy have set up consultancies. But the prospects do not look good.

Professor Paul Cairney of Stirling University says the situation faced by ex-MPs is unprecedented. For generations, he says, there was always plenty of work for Scotland's former politicians, but former MPs are struggling. "This is unusual,” says the professor. “It is so unusual that it would not have occurred to me to research it until this happened. Most of the research would be how many of them feathered their nests at the end of their political careers."

 

The Herald: Dame Anne Begg has warned that large groups of people appear to be being "parked" on the new Employment Support Allowance

It is worth pointing out tha the MPs who have lost their jobs do have relatively generous severance packages amounting to a month’s salary for every year of service up to a maximum of six months. But an MP losing their job also means their staff lose their jobs too. And even in these days of contempt for politics, most MPs still start out in politics for the best of reasons, and many take big pay cuts in order to do their bit in the Commons.

The fact that most of the MPs who lost out last May are struggling to find opportunities will be seen by some as a just fate, but MPs cannot go on being punished for the expenses scandal forever. There is also a danger that former Labour and Liberal MPs will be excluded from public life because they are no longer seen to have the right connections to Scotland’s SNP-dominated government – and the cost of that approach would be the diversity of Scottish public life. Many former MPs have the skills and talents to continue to make a contribution to public life – it would be a pity if the lingering effects of the expenses scandal, or a perception that they are in the “wrong” party, meant that could not happen.

Scotland's former MPs. Where are they now?

The Herald:

 

The Herald: