Tony Blair’s Special Advisor on handling the UK parliamentary experience

You have campaigned and canvassed, shaken hands and spoken at fundraisers, spent a lot of money and worked tirelessly, but you have finally done it. You have been elected as an MP.

Now what?

Beginning a parliamentary career can be daunting, so The Silent MP spoke to Daniel Sleat, special advisor to Tony Blair, on how to cope.

‘[There are] a few commonalities in the help MPs need’, explains Daniel, ‘the first is getting a sense of what they were there to do’.

Transitioning from local election campaigning to national parliament can be intensely overwhelming, with MPs often swamped by a range of local and national issues that all appear to require immediate attention.

Most politicians enter politics in order to change the world for the better, and therefore try to be involved with as many projects and tackle as many issues as they can. According to Daniel, this is the wrong approach. ‘Far, far too many people in my experience were completely exhausted too much of the time to think and work in a way that suits their constituent benefits’, he tells The Silent MP.

Instead of chasing after every chance to influence a decision, Daniel argues that we should instead take time to think about the best way to prioritise and focus on a few key issues. Through this, we can take the time to truly get to know each issue, and thoughtfully create long term goals with that in mind. For many, this means moving away from a day filled with back-to-back meetings, to one that leaves us with time to committedly pursue a set of pre-defined, and thought out, goals.

For many value-driven politicians, taking a step back from constant busyness can be difficult. Daniel tells us that the most important aspect here is being truthful, reminding ourselves and others that we ‘can’t be all things to all people, and just being honest about that’. This involves managing expectations, being able to delegate to those we trust, and, crucially, learning how to say no. We must be able to stand firm in our prioritisation and resist the temptation to try and fix everything.

Giving one percent of ourselves to one hundred people would end up in fundamentally doing nothing, says Daniel, we would be too thinly spread to have an influence, and we would end up letting people down. Instead, we must be able to focus on what we want to achieve, what we are passionate about, and who we are there to serve.

Creating this framework upon entering parliament will allow us to prioritise a long-term change within the issues that matter to us most.