Headhunters have been offering former deputy prime minister Dominic Raab jobs in the City as some Conservative MPs look beyond an expected general election next year.
More than 70 current MPs have announced that they would step down At the end of this Parliament. With the opposition Labor Party leading the ruling Conservatives by about 18 percentage points in opinion polls, the biggest supporters come from the Conservatives, with 43 Conservative MPs so far saying they will leave parliament, according to research from the Institute for Government think tank.
Raab is one of several former cabinet ministers on the list, which also includes former prime minister Sajid Javid, former defense secretary Ben Wallace and former environment secretary George Eustice.
If Labor achieves the huge advantage current polls suggest, more Tory MPs will lose their jobs. Some experts predict it will be the largest exodus of MPs since Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.
According to the IfG, only 14 Labor MPs have resigned before the election so far. They included Dame Margaret Beckett and Dame Margaret Hodge.
While some former MPs have difficulty adapting to life in the private sector, those with experience in the business world can thrive.
Javid, the former chancellor and health secretary who was an investment banker at Deutsche Bank before entering parliament, has already The central bodyis a financial group headquartered in London.
Meanwhile, Eustice, who held various ministerial posts between 2013 and 2021, has set up a company to provide advice to businesses in the agricultural technology and water sectors. Whitehall’s watchdog, the Business Appointments Advisory Committee (he continues) has approved Eustice’s new company but stipulates that he must seek government advice before taking on new clients.
Boris Johnson has earned millions of pounds from speaking engagements since resigning as prime minister last summer.
A former Tory cabinet minister has advised MPs facing job losses to bide their time and find suitable new jobs.
“It’s best not to rush things, but it can be difficult because the diary is empty and it can feel a bit scary,” the former minister said. “MPs have transferable skills – you have analytical skills, You understand how government and the public sector work.”
He added that many Conservative MPs who lost their seats in Tony Blair’s Labor landslide victory in 1997 were “finding it very difficult”. “Private sector employers may be skeptical of people who have been in politics for a long time, especially if you are on the ‘wrong side’ while someone else is in power,” he said.
Raab was forced to resign as deputy prime minister amid bullying accusations, which he angrily denied. Raab confirmed he had begun what he called “preliminary conversations” about what he might do after resigning as an MP, but did not elaborate.
His name was put forward by a recruitment consultancy called Kea, which describes itself as a “boutique executive search firm operating exclusively in the European alternative investment sector”.
Raab’s CV, shared with the Financial Times, highlighted his experience at Linklaters as an “international lawyer trained in the City of London”. It mentioned his six cabinet posts and that he was “the first deputy prime minister ever to serve two prime ministers”.
Earlier this year, he became a retained spokesperson for Chartwell Speakers, which boasts on its website his “extensive executive experience, particularly in international affairs, national security, geopolitical risk and the Indo-Pacific region.”
Some private equity executives have questioned whether Raab’s experience is transferable, adding that the Conservatives could lose the next election, which would not help his job prospects.
Sir Nick Harvey, a former Lib Dem MP and coalition government minister, said: “The market is extremely difficult. The expenses scandal and the continued deterioration of the political class’s prestige make it even more difficult.
“Maybe 20 or 30 years ago it wasn’t a big deal to have a former councilor on the board, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”
He warned that former MPs who lost office when another party was in power would find this particularly difficult. “What use are ex-Conservative MPs as an opener if the Conservatives win the next election? The fact is, they are not,” he said.
An MP who has announced he will resign at the next election has said he believes having a strong CV before entering politics is as important as achievements at Westminster as it “shows you can work in different environments” .
The post-political careers of David Cameron and former Prime Minister and Chancellor George Osborne illustrate the opportunities and pitfalls of former politicians entering business.
Osborne built a portfolio career that included roles as editor of the Evening Standard and as an adviser to US investment management firm BlackRock, where he worked just four days a month and earned an annual salary of £650,000. He has since resigned from those roles to become a partner at boutique investment banking firm Robey Warshaw.
Cameron’s failed attempt to launch a UK-China investment fund never got off the ground. He earned more than $1 million a year as a consultant at factoring firm Greensill Capital and cashed out millions in stock options before the group collapsed.
But he was embroiled in the biggest lobbying scandal in a generation when the Financial Times revealed he had been privately urging former colleagues to change the rules on a Covid-19 loan scheme to benefit his new employer.
Svlook