Andrew Bridgen: Why Useless MPs Have No Casework — The Truth They Don’t Want You to Hear

If you couldn’t have another job, you could never take on a ministerial job — because you simply wouldn’t have the time. But being a backbencher is as much work as you choose to make it.

What you really have to worry about are the MPs who don’t get casework. When people don’t come to them with problems, in my experience, it’s not because there are no problems in their constituency. It’s because their constituents have already decided that their MP is useless.

The harder you work as a backbencher — the more you sort out people’s problems for your constituents — the more they tell others, and the more people come to you. And I sometimes think people believe ‘MP’ stands for miracle performer. They’re looking for a miracle, and if you can try to provide one, you should.”