What are the responsibilities of an MP?

What are the responsibilities of an MP?

Oona King (Author and Former Member of Parliament) gives expert video advice on: Why did you become an MP?; How do you get a job as an MP?; What makes a good MP? and more...

An MP has responsibilities towards the people they serve. Quite often, especially if you represent a tricky constituency which has got a lot of deprivation, you will get an endless stream of people coming to your door. Your responsibility is to work out who you can help, who you should be able to help, and who it's not your job to help. Your responsibility also is to scrutinize government. I was on the Select Committee. There are many ways you can scrutinize the executive, but that's another responsibility. You also have responsibility to your party as well. You have responsibility to the constituency, the electorate, to Parliament, so that you are scrutinizing government, and then also to the political party, to make sure that you think your party is pursuing the right policies and is in a position to put their manifesto into practice.