With quiet dignity but a steely sense of purpose, Parliament’s unseen army of MPs’ secretaries and researchers have staged a palace coup against their paymasters at Westminster.

It is a bloodless mutiny. On the surface life continues in the House of Commons with no outward signs of the insurrection of the past three weeks. Yet scratch beneath and something has changed. MPs have been chastened, their collective pride punctured and status bruised by a peasants’ revolt in which politicians have been taught a humiliating lesson in courtesy by their own employees.

The cause, a terse instruction telling staff that they must allow MPs to jump the queues at Commons cafeterias, shops and photocopiers, has in effect been abandoned. In theory the “Members’ priority” rule remains. In practice any MP unwise enough to exercise such a right now runs the risk of insubordination, as young graduate researchers and silver-haired secretaries unite in a refusal to acquiesce.

Some MPs’ secretaries have worked at Westminster for 25 years or longer, and a good number are with their second or third MP. Having coached generations of newly elected MPs into the ways of the Commons, many were deeply affronted to be told how to behave in Parliament. Their ranks include some MPs’ wives and daughters, further complicating relationships.

“I have never seen people as angry,” said Gill Cheeseman, president of the Secretaries and Assistants Council, who works for the Lib Dem MP Alan Beith. “Everybody agrees that if a Member says, ‘Excuse me, I am in a hurry, would you mind if I went to the front of the queue?’ nobody is going to say they mind. It is just down to courtesy and respect.”

For MPs’ researchers and caseworkers, who tend to be graduates on starting salaries of £15,000 to £25,000, and among whom turnover is much higher, the anger is just as great but motivated by egalitarian instincts as much as good manners. Dan Whittle, a researcher for the Labour MP Anne Snelgrove and chairman of the parliamentary branch of the Transport & General Workers Union, said: “This is like something from the Middle Ages.

“We were all ready to go off and work to get our MPs reelected. Then we came back and the first e-mail that landed in the inbox was saying we were getting in the way of MPs when they wanted to get a sandwich. It was not exactly a sign that we are valued.”

The e-mail from the Serjeant at Arms, Peter Grant Peterkin, and the director of catering, Sue Harrison, told staff of a recommendation that MPs have “priority access” to services: “With effect from today, staff and other users should be prepared to give way to Members when queuing for retail and catering services, the post office, travel office or when using other facilities such as lifts, photocopiers, telephone cubicles etc.”

The instruction originated with MPs on the cross-party Commons Administration Committee. Colleagues said that it was proposed by Simon Burns, a Tory MP, amid frustration that rises in the number of staff working in the Commons meant MPs having to wait.

More than 150 secretaries and researchers squeezed into a Commons committee room last week, with more unable to get in, to tell the Labour MP Frank Doran, who is chairman of the Administration Committee, that they thought the rules an insult.

Many MPs have supported their protest. Sir John Butterfill, a Tory MP, has written to call for the rule to be scrapped and the Labour MP Martin Salter has been spotted peeling off “Members’ priority” notices from queueing points.

Keeping the House in order

— There are 1,230 staff to support the 646 MPs. A further 1,755 staff work for Parliament itself and there are 916 other occupants, such as the media and Post Office employees

— The average number of staff per MP is 1.9. Some MPs have 5 or more staff with parliamentary passes. Up to 80 Members choose not to locate staff at all in the Parliamentary Estate’s eight buildings

— Parliament has four self-service cafeterias; four table-service restaurants; five bars; a Members’ Tea Room; the Pugin Room, which serves as a bar and tea room; one summer-only buffet pavilion; one coffee bar; hospitality rooms; and vending machines

— Other services: Post Office, business travel office, florist, hairdresser, rifle club, sports and social club, Westminster Gym, souvenir shop, bookshop

— There are 17 bedrooms for staff who are required to remain late in support of the sittings of the House

Source: Parliament

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