Open letter to Ed Miliband on fair internships

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Dear Ed,

A Labour MP has hit the news for replacing a paid member of staff with an unpaid intern. Lyn Brown has acted wrongly. Unpaid internships exploit young people desperate to get work at a time of high graduate unemployment. And they cut out the vast majority who can’t afford to work for free.

You know this to be true. You speak of a “British promise” under threat because “the next generation will find it harder to get on than the last”. You highlight the difficulty young people have in finding jobs and criticise the way “the best off… buy their way to hand the best chances to get on to their children.”

We were delighted that you signed our pledge to campaign for the “Minimum Wage Act to be fully enforced so that employers must pay their interns.”

But it is difficult to talk about social mobility with a straight face while the only young people who can afford to work in Labour MPs’ offices are those who can afford to work for free.

You promised to end unpaid internships across Britain. Today, we ask you to keep your pledge in a very small way: end unpaid internships in the Labour Party and put the rhetoric of “the British promise” into action.

Ben Lyons (Intern Aware)
Gus Baker (Intern Aware)
Liam Burns (NUS President)
Susan Nash (Young Labour, Chair)
Callum Munro (NEC Youth Representative)
Christine Quigley (London Young Labour, Chair, Labour Party Irish Society, Vice-Chair)
Fred Gringrod (NPF East of England Regional Representative)
Cllr Helen Gibson (Lewisham Council)
Cllr Van Coulter (Oxford City Council)
Cllr Mike Rowley (Oxford City Council)
Cllr Joseph Riches (York City Council)
Colin Jackson (Co-Chair, Oxford University Labour Club)
Rhiannon Hedge (Labour Students National Committee)
Joe Thomas (Hornsey and Wood Green CLP)
Sam Mannion (Chair of South Yorkshire Young Labour)
Lewis Iwu (Former President, Oxford University Students Union)
Jonny Medland (Oxford East CLP)
Christopher McKeon (Cambridge Universities Labour Club)
Sarah Brown (Broxtowe CLP)
Kieran Cunningham (Sefton Central CLP)
Eleanor Brown (Leyton and Wanstead CLP)
Phil Pocknee (Hull University Student Union, Vice-President)
Tom Rutland (Tunbridge Wells CLP and Oxford University Labour Club Executive)
Hugh Murdoch (Scottish Labour Students)
Thomas Graham (Former Edinburgh University Students Union President)
Alan Scobbie (Former Labour Students Sabbatical, Vauxhall CLP)
Kat Shields (Former Co-Chair, Oxford University Labour Club)
Sarah Santhosham
Natalie Fernandes
Olivia Higgs
Tom Garton
Mark O’Brien
Nathan Jones
Alex Smethurst
Marta Owczarek
Natalie White
Rosy Rickett and Alex Try (Interns Anonymous)
Mark Ferguson, Editor, LabourList
Vincenzo Rampulla, Chair of Westminster North Labour Party and Young Fabian Executive Member (in a personal capacity
Alex Mitchell (President, Brunel Labour)
Becky Heath and Dom Potter, (Co-founders, Internocracy)
Tanya de Grunwald (Graduate Fog)
Mo Saqib (University of Manchester Students Union)
Elinor Taylor
Kyrillous Amin
Mary Cooksey (Hull University Labour Club)
Aaron Hill
Rachael O’Byrne (President, Liverpool Hope Students Union)
Emma Meehan (Vice-President, Edinburgh University Students Union)
Liv Bailey (Chair, Labour Students)
Cllr Ben Cooper (South Hams)
Louise Haigh (Unite: Parliamentary Branch)
Adrian Prandle, (Chair, Young Fabians, in a personal capacity)
Tony Richards (Coventry South CLP)
Elaine Chong (Young Labour)
Richard Mallinson
Lauren O’Hara
Marice Cumber
Stuart Tooley (Scottish Labour Students)
Bex Bailey (Vice-Chair, Young Labour and NPF Representative for East Midlands)
Martha Mackenzie (President, Oxford University Students Union)
Susan Duncan (Former Deputy President, University West of Scotland Students’ Association)
Ben West
Mary Roberts (Chair, Scottish Labour Students)
Annabelle Harle (NPF Representative, Wales)
Maria Fyfe (NPF Representative, Scotland)
Martin Bright (Founder and Chief Executive of New Deal of the Mind)
Andrew Lomas (Parliamentary Candidate, 2010)
Richard Brooks (Hull University Labour Club)
Emma Taggart (Hackney North and Stoke Newington CLP)
Nathan Selby (Liverpool Wavertree CLP)
Eleanor Saunders
Marie Janaway
Craig Melson
Suzannah Greenwood
John Evans
Elizabeth KahnIan Stevens (Chair, Reading Young Labour)
Will Cross (President, Reading Uni Labour Society)
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary-elect
Cat Smith, Unite Parliamentary Staff Branch and Vice-Chair of London Young Labour
Ben Mosley, Chair of Bristol West Labour Party
Darrell Goodliffe (Ex-intern for a Labour MP.)
Max Freedman (Chair, UNITE Parliamentary Staff branch)
Zoe Cooke
Leon Ward
Thomas Spragg
Maria-luisa Piliero
Malcolm Franks
Kirstin Hay (Cities of London and Westminster CLP, Youth Officer; Imperial College Labour Society, Vice-President)
Gary Mills
Jerome Neil
Michael
Rupert Sutton
Miriam Dornan
Alan Martin
Chris Wallace
Lisa Thom
Tisha Brown
Brian Macy
Ray Filar
Cllr Sarah Hayward (Labour Councillor in King’s Cross Ward Camden, & Cabinet member for Communities, Regeneration & Equalities.)
Alex Nikolic
Paul Murphy (NUS SEC)
Ayo Ajanaku (Wellingborough CLP)
Felicity Dennistoun
Vicky Heywood
Jon Lansman (Editor, Left Futures (www.leftfutures.org)”
Tim Blackwell
Ben Connor
Tom Sutton
Alice Vaughan
Susan Kelly (Carrotworkers Collective)
Ben Furber
Pat Lockley
Tracey Wells
Laura Blake
Kirsty Peebles
Richard Bridge
Caroline Bennett
Calum Sherwood
Tom King
Mark Cooper
Aaron Hussey
Keith Millar
Martin Gowans
Cllr. Matt Strong (Manchester Councillor)
Elizabeth Palmer
Karl Lewis
Tom Adams
Jessica Asato
Vijay Bhutada
Éoin Clarke
Brian
Peter Kenyon
Violina
Maryann O’Connor
Patrick Osgood
Stephanie Campbell
Emma Garland
Danny Marten
Teddy Ryan
Katie Curtis
Laura Maley
Carl Roper
Kimberley Syme
Brendan Caldwell
Benjamin Clarkson
Polly Allen
Samuel Milsom
Mary Pinn
Sam James
Rida Vaquas
Dan Walsh
Yvonne Kay
Hannah Peters
Rob Hicks (Secretary of Oval Labour in Vauxhall CLP and a former sabbatical officer at University of Leicester Students’ Union)
Cllr Jane Edbrooke (Lambeth Labour Councillor)
Rahema Begum
Joseph Gilder
Josh Gibson
David Hodges (Fundraising Officer for Streatham CLP)
Giulio Folino (Chair, City University Labour Students)
Jack Smith
Jack Falkingham (NPF Youth Rep Yorkshire and The Humber)
Cllr Richard Sandy (Councillor for Westwood Ward, Coventry City Council)
David Courcoux
Lotus Warren
Mark Bristow
Gillian Bolton
Gavin Patel
Stephen Curtis
Jordan Walmsley
Margaret Simonowicz
Jonathan Rogers
Ben Mosley
Cllr Martin Walker (Felixstowe Town Council)
Jack Evans (Oxford University Labour Club)
David Butler (Oxford University Labour Club)
Janelle McAteer
Jonathan Yap
Amitpal Aujla
Cllr Kevin Peel
Isioma Daniel
Rowan Draper
Harriet
Siobhan Cannon
Daoudi Kiraruberwa
Joseph Flanagan
Rachel Ryan
Cllr. Sam Tarry (Former Chair of Young Labour).
Gerry Morrissey, (General Secretary, BECTU)
Tim Moore
Jason Butcher
Sam Kirkwood
Lucia
Chris Hughes (Chair of North West Young Labour)
Joe Vinson
Liz Rawlings
Rory Lawless
Simone Webb
Tim Wade
Thomas Williams
Paul Burgin
Megan Evans
Daniel Vallecillo
Pat Boadu-Darko
Keri Hudson
Melanie Brown