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It has emerged that eight coalition MPs and three constituency parties have been advertising for unpaid interns
Nick Clegg's declaration on Sunday that young people doing internships should be paid the national minimum wage was undermined after it emerged that eight coalition MPs and three constituency parties were advertising for unpaid interns on Tuesday.
The website working4anMP currently lists unpaid intern vacancies with the Conservative MPs Aidan Burley, David Davis, David Amess, Mark Menzies and Dominic Raab, and the West Thurrock constituency Conservative party. Liberal Democrat MPs advertising for an unpaid intern included David Ward and John Leech, along with the Bristol and Lewes constituency Lib Dem parties.
Ward, the MP for Bradford East, appeared to be completely unaware of his government's new stance on interns when the Guardian contacted him, and said he would just reword the advertisement to seek out a volunteer instead. "If we had the brass, we'd pay for one," he said. "Do I think interns should should work for free? That's their decision.
"I really haven't seen what Nick Clegg's said and the full context of it, but if there's some sort of full internship process that requires legislation, then I'd have to look at that. But what will happen is simply that [interns] will become volunteers. And I don't think there are any plans to legislate to pay volunteers."
The Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland was the only MP on the site advertising a paid intern position, with a salary "in line with Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority scales".
The national internship scheme – part of the government's social mobility strategy – will urge firms to pay young people doing work experience. If employers refuse to do so, they could risk a legal challenge under the national minimum wage legislation. People will be encouraged to blow the whistle on unpaid internships.
The government is also urging employers to do more to give people without family connections experience in competitive work sectors, and will urge them to ignore family names and educational backgrounds when filtering applicants. Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said the intention was to make internships less dependent on "who your father's friends are".
While acknowledging that unpaid internships were unfair, the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA), a body representing PR firms – an industry often accused of profiting from the use of unpaid interns – said the government also needed to practise what it preaches.
"It is of course important that politicians lead by example. So there is a certain irony in the fact that [several] Lib Dem MPs and constituency parties are currently advertising for unpaid internships on the working4anMP website," said Francis Ingham, chief executive of the PRCA. "The first thing Mr Clegg might usefully do is have a quiet word with his colleagues."
Ingham admitted the PR industry's shortcomings in terms of offering unapid internships. "Unpaid, long term internships are restrictive and unfair," he said. "This is an area under consideration by the PRCA's Access Commission and we look forward to its detailed recommendations later in the year."
Campaigners for fairer internship schemes welcomed the government's proposals to make employers pay young people on long-term work placements, but family poverty campaigners said the plans would do nothing to facilitate social mobility among workers from the poorest backgrounds.
Mike Hill, chief executive of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit, which operates the National Council for Work Experience, welcomed Clegg's comments.
"As far as one could expect the government to intervene without creating a lot of new red tape, they actually have done," Hill said. "Our view is that if you want high quality interns and you want better social mobility, employers should advertise internship positions. so I am delighted to hear Nick Clegg supporting that in public."
Tanya de Grunwald, editor of the Graduate Fogwebsite which campaigns strongly against unpaid internships, said Clegg's comments showed "some understanding of the frustration felt by hundreds of thousands of young people who can't afford to work unpaid and feel shut out of the professions".
De Grunwald was cynical of plans to urge people to blow the whistle on employers who did not pay interns minimum wage. "Why would you report somebody you're trying to impress?" she said. "Putting the burden on the interns to report employers isn't fair. Too many interns are too desperate for experience to risk shooting themselves in the foot."
The Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA), a body representing the PR industry – often accused of profiting from the use of unpaid interns – said it "warmly welcomed" Clegg's announcement.
"Unpaid, long term internships are restrictive and unfair," said Francis Ingham, chief executive of the PRCA. "This is an area under consideration by the PRCA's access commission and we look forward to its detailed recommendations later in the year."
While admitting some of the PR industry's failings in relation to interns, Ingham said the government should also practise what it preaches. "It is of course important that politicians lead by example. So there is a certain irony in the fact that seven Lib Dem MPs and constituency parties are currently advertising for unpaid internships on the working4anMP website," he said. "The first thing Mr Clegg might usefully do is have a quiet word with his colleagues."
However, family poverty campaigners claimed that welfare cuts and tax changes due to come into force on Wednesday 6 April would do more damage to social mobility prospects among disadvantaged families than any attempts to open up work experience could counteract.
"Easy access to an internship in their 20s will be no recompense for disadvantage from birth and a childhood in poverty for the poorest families," said Family Action's chief executive Helen Dent.
"We're very concerned that kids born under the coalition will be left behind in the social mobility stakes with no prospect of catching up at another point in later life. We're disappointed neither the social mobility strategy nor the child poverty strategy address this."
Graham Snowdon
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