Spare a thought for former Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, still without a permanent new job after being kicked out of the Commons by the voters of Stoke-on-Trent North last July.
“I wasn’t prepared for how difficult it would be to even get an interview in the workplace,” he said in a radio interview, describing the negative impact being out of work was having on his mental health, and on his young family.
“I’ve got a four-year-old and a two-year-old; I’ve got a wife who’s made incredible sacrifices in her own career to support my dream of being a Member of Parliament. It adds pressure, especially at a time when, family and friends, want to give them presents. It’s tough.”
Gullis did concede that “I’ve done some consultancy, I’m doing a bit of freelance”. And he will also have been in receipt of a winding-up payment of almost £20,000, as well as an additional loss of office payment likely to be worth another £5,000.
But anyone out of work at this time of year deserves sympathy. Considerably more sympathy than Gullis showed for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in January 2023, after a report that 200 – including 13 under the age of 16 – were missing.
When Labour’s Tulip Siddiq raised the issue at prime minister’s questions, Gullis shouted: “Well, they shouldn’t have come here illegally.”
