Life after politics: 'I'm more relaxed than I've been in a decade'

On election night, Carol Monaghan had to wait until around 5am to find out she had lost her seat. Exhausted after a bruising campaign, she didn’t even make it to her bed before the messages started pouring in from various campaigners asking who would take up their cause now that she was no longer in parliament to fight for them.

The MP for Glasgow North West since 2015, Monaghan was one of 39 SNP representatives who were defeated during a landmark night in UK politics. Behind every result, however, are the personal stories of those who have devoted so much of their time and energy to party politics and now find themselves cast adrift, the flotsam of an electoral tidal wave. 

 “The timing is so quick,” says Monaghan. “Your parliamentary pass stops working and from being somebody who has access to everything, you’re somebody who has access to nothing within six days of the election. That’s quite brutal. People are going down to clear out their office and they’re bumping into the person who has just unseated them. It’s an awkward time.”
Monaghan was a physics teacher before entering parliament and intends to return to it now, initially on a part-time basis. 

“The phone is ringing busily,” she says. “Physics teachers are like hen’s teeth, so I’m not struggling for work. I would have done it for another five years had the electorate supported me, but at this point it’s given me a chance to step back, take a deep breath and evaluate things. I’m spending a lot more time with my family and I’m a lot more relaxed than I have been in a decade.”

It’s fair to say politicians don’t tend to engender much sympathy from the public at large. Amid the emotion of an election night, most people are too busy celebrating or mourning the result to think about the individuals concerned. And yet there is a lot at stake for those involved. There’s the loss of an MP’s salary – currently £91,346 – as well as the impact on the ex-politician’s staff, all of whom find themselves unemployed. 

From the day after polling day, exiting MPs have a four-month ‘winding-up period’ to settle their affairs. During that time, they must make their staff redundant, return equipment, and repay any outstanding money to the parliamentary authorities. For those leaving parliament, there is also severance pay equivalent to four months’ wages – this was doubled last year. MPs who have served more than two years are also eligible for a Loss of Office Payment (Loop) – the average payment made after the 2019 general election was £5,250. According to the 2021 accounts of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), £1.28m was paid in severance and a further £827,600 in loss of office payments after the previous election.

“I’m definitely an ex-politician now; 10 years of my life is enough.

But while there is a generous financial safety net, life can be difficult for those looking to return to a relatively normal life after being involved in the cut and thrust of Westminster politics.
“It’s certainly a big change and a lifestyle change as well,” says Danielle Rowley, a former Labour MP who lost her seat at the 2019 election and is now head of communications and public affairs at The Samaritans in Scotland. “I had already worked in the third sector when I got elected, so that’s what I have gone back into doing and I feel quite comfortable here.” 

Rowley, who represented Midlothian between 2017 and 2019, was just 27 when she was elected but had been steeped in the politics of the left from an early age – her father Alex is a Labour MSP, and her late mother was a trade unionist and an MP caseworker. 

“You learn a lot in parliament but being an MP is really what you make of it. I tried to get stuck into everything I could, learning from experienced people who had been in parliament for a long time and from people in the community as well. There’s a lot of knowledge I use now in my job that I gained from helping people in the constituency.” 

One element of the job that former politicians are unlikely to miss is the level of abuse and animosity directed their way, mainly on social media. Threats and intimidation have become par for the course and, while British politics on the whole remains incredibly open and politicians easy to get hold of, there has been increased security following the murders of Jo Cox in 2016 and David Amess in 2021. Elsewhere in this magazine, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn reveals that he turned down advice to employ increased protection in the run-up to the general election.

Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry recently used a valedictory newspaper column to signal that she would take some time away from politics to consider what she plans to do next after losing her seat. However, she bemoaned the amount of personal abuse she had suffered from those within the independence movement while representing her Edinburgh constituency. 

“Back in 2014 had I foreseen the level of abuse and harassment I would have to endure as an SNP MP, simply for daring to question the direction the party was taking, I would never have left my legal career to enter elected politics,” she wrote. 

Monaghan says there’s also a good deal of stress from being in the public eye and the constant worry that you’re just one comment or gaffe away from being a newspaper headline.
“For 10 years you’re living your life looking over your shoulder, checking who’s watching, worrying about what you’re saying and thinking about what could be a headline,” she says.

“That’s a hard way to live your life. What have I done? Who’s watching me? What have I said? For people not in elected office you can joke and laugh at things, and they might be poorly received and you can say sorry, but for an MP it can be career-ending.”

While for some it can take a while to get over the shock of losing their seat, most former politicians find they are in demand with employers keen to take advantage of their skills, work ethic and contacts. 

“It’s losing your job very publicly,” says Rowley. “But also feeling the responsibility of your staff losing their jobs and thinking of all the people you were helping and working with. Everything just very abruptly comes to an end. Even though you are replaced by another MP, there’s no handover like you would find in a normal job. It was a shock even though I was prepared for it. 

“It’s difficult when you’ve been there standing on a stage, losing your job to then see other people going through that on the telly and not feel some empathy or sympathy for them. But at the same time, you want really fantastic people to be elected – people you really believe in.” 

Of course, for some, defeat is not the end. When Monaghan lost the Glasgow West constituency in July it was to Labour’s Patricia Ferguson, a former MSP who had herself been ousted by the SNP at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. Many of Monaghan’s former parliamentary colleagues, including former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, have hinted at a possible return to politics at the Holyrood election in 2026. 

On returning to politics at some point in future, Rowley says “never say never”, but Monaghan is categoric: “I’m definitely an ex-politician now; 10 years of my life is enough. I will campaign for independence again, but I won’t go back to elected office – it’s a bruising role to have.”