'In October 2025, the GMB MPs’ and Peers’ Staff Branch launched a report, exposing vast pay inequalities in Parliament'
By Holly Williamson, Office Manager and GMB MPs’ and Lords’ Staff Branch Equalities Officer and Philip Hutchinson, Senior Parliamentary Researcher and GMB MPs’ and Lords’ Staff Branch Youth Officer
In October 2025, the GMB MPs’ and Peers’ Staff Branch launched a report, exposing vast pay inequalities in Parliament. The report showed that women earn £1,000 less than men, non-white staff £2,000 less than white staff, and disabled staff £600 less than non-disabled staff. Moreover, these inequalities also compound, with a non-white woman, for example, earning £6,000 less than white men.
This report demonstrated what many of us already knew: that the systems and structures that exist in Parliament reinforce inequality, and with women, non-white, disabled, non-straight and trans staff all suffering as a result. We hoped this report would be a wake-up call that would cause MPs to ask deep and searching questions about how to end these systemic inequalities.
At the heart of these inequalities lies a power imbalance between MPs and their staff. Politics relies on networks and building a good relationship with the MP you work for can help to advance a staffer’s own political career.
However, this power imbalance is grossly exacerbated by the fact that, instead of being employed by Parliament, staff are employed directly by individual MPs. This creates a system rife for abuse, where staff who raise complaints risk professional isolation, career damage, and loss of access to vital networks of support and advice.
Most constituents would be shocked if they discovered that in electing an MP, they are also appointing someone to run a quasi-mini business, responsible for hundreds of thousands of pounds of staff expenditure, and for managing small teams of staff who often have to work in stressful and toxic environments.
Although this situation is bad for all staff, it particularly impacts women, those from minority groups and younger staff, who are groups that already tend to experience higher levels of bullying and exploitation in the workplace.
However, it does not need to be this way. In many established democracies, such as in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and the European Parliament, staff are employed directly by Parliament rather than by individual MPs. In these countries, Parliament manages contracts, conditions and complaints while MPs continue to choose their team and direct their day-to-day work.
The One Parliament, One Employer campaign, launched by the GMB MPs’ and Peers’ Staff Branch, is therefore calling for the UK Parliament to follow these examples and make Parliament the legal employer for all MPs’ staff. Rather than just addressing the symptoms, this campaign seeks to remove one of the main systemic issues driving inequality.
Having Parliament as the single employer for all MPs would also drive greater levels of transparency. According to UK legislation, only employers with 250 or more staff must report their gender pay gap. Given that each MP currently acts as a separate employer, there is no requirement for Parliament to report on the gender pay gap between MPs’ staff, even though all large businesses, charities and institutions are required to do so.
The proposed Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will also require all large employers to report ethnicity and disability pay gaps. Yet, the existing structures mean that once again, these requirements will not apply to MPs’ staff.
A problem cannot be solved unless it is first identified, and the existing system meant that until recently, the scale of inequality in Parliament was unknown. When we sent a Freedom of Information request to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), asking for data on pay, we were told that they did not have available information about ethnicity, gender and disability, with only data on age and sex available. As a result, we had to collect the relevant data by surveying staff members ourselves.
At the heart of this problem is that Parliament does not live up to the values it legislates for others. As long as Parliament maintains inequality within its own workforce, it will also be blind to inequalities that exist within society more widely.
These inequalities and power imbalances also mean that MPs lose out on talented and capable staffers, as experienced workers leave Parliament rather than remain in an unsafe and unequal system. The British Parliament is known for its constant and fast turnover of staff, meaning that it continually bleeds experience and institutional knowledge.
As a union branch with over 1,500 members working for MPs, we also see a concerning number of cases that stem from the current system. This high caseload would make any other employer ashamed and makes clear that this problem can only be fixed by changing the existing employment model.
The One Parliament, One Employer campaign provides MPs with a chance to create a modern and professional workplace, fit for the 21st century. Our democracy has always evolved in order to adjust to new challenges and to address existing problems.
Through the One Parliament, One Employer campaign, we have the chance to create a more equal Parliament and, ultimately, therefore, a more equal country. It is a campaign that now requires MPs’ full support.
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