Vorderman: Make ‘detached’ MPs clear bins
MPs should collect bins every month to understand how the country works, Carol Vorderman has suggested in her new book.
The former Countdown presenter, 63, described the idea as “national ser- vice for MPs” to address them being “detached from the reality of life for most of Britain”.
The idea was inspired by Rishi Sunak’s similar proposal for 18-yearolds made during July’s election campaign, she said.
Vorderman quit her job at BBC Radio Wales in November 2023 after the corporation published new social media guidelines rules.
An outspoken critic of the previous Conservative government, Vorderman said she was “not prepared to lose my voice on social media”, opting to stop working for the BBC instead.
In her book, Now What?: On a Mission
to Fix Broken Britain, released on Sept 12, Vorderman suggests the bin police as part of her plan for change.
She writes: “After the Tory party suggested in their dying days that 18-yearolds should do national service, let’s take that thought and apply it to MPs of all parties.
“They could undertake their own form of national service in order to understand how our country actually works at all levels, rather than just parachuting straight into the cosy and subsidised world of Westminster.”
She went on to suggest that for the first year of every Parliament, all MPs – other than Cabinet ministers – should spend three days every month interning in a selection of different roles.
The suggested jobs include being a hospital porter, teaching assistant, working in a factory, joining the ranks in one of the Armed Forces, an old people’s care home, “on the bins”, on roadworks, and with the police.
She added MPs could also work in the City or undertake data collection to give a “spread of experience”.
Vorderman also suggested that Parliament should relocate for three months every year as part of “true levelling up”, in order to give politicians a sense of the “variety, beauty and challenges of this country”.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Conservative MP, said: “Representing constituents is a proper job which requires attendance in Parliament and in the constituency. This tokenistic suggestion would turn it into a pantomime.”