Work for a Labour MP (UK)

Are you considering careers in animal advocacy? Most people typically think about working for charities. Indeed, they play an essential role. However, animals need allies across various sectors, and advocacy isn't limited to charity work. Due to this misconception, adjacent roles are often overlooked and neglected, leaving a lack of mission-aligned candidates in important institutional roles. These alternative roles can also broaden career options for those who prefer not to work in charities but still want to help animals.

With the conclusion of the UK elections, there has been a substantial change of power in government. 211 new Labour MP’s have just secured seats, with a total of 412 seats in government. A large number of urgent roles are now available to work for MPs across the country. This creates a huge opportunity for us to get the voices of animals considered in government decision-making both now and in the future.
This is an excellent opportunity for early-career professionals to get high-quality experience in the political space and great career capital.

If you are an early-career professional, we recommend you to submit your CV via the Parliamentary Labour Party Office. They will vet and recommend the best applicants from a range of backgrounds to parliamentarians.

If you are a senior-career professional with existing networks to MPs or Labour party members, we encourage you to target MPs who have a good chance of becoming ministers and offer to work in their office.

If you have any concerns or questions about whether this is the right career option for you, or if you are weighing up policy work vs. direct work, you apply for our 1:1 career advising service by emailing lauren@animaladvocacycareers.org

How do these roles help animals?

Governmental organisations have legislative and regulatory powers that can be used to create rules that help animals; helping to establish better standards for animals in the long future and improve their standing and rights, such as better animal welfare laws and subsidies for developing alternatives to animal products.

Influencing governmental organisations from the outside is even more difficult currently, since most government officials do not value animals highly and have other priorities. Even starting and maintaining meaningful communication and negotiation is hard.

Therefore, Animal advocates working inside governmental organisations can be extremely impactful if they can influence and convince decision-makers.

Of course, this path has its own challenges and therefore involves many uncertainties around its impact:
Your department and role needs to eventually have some authority over topics that concern animals, so that you can use your position to help animals.
You need to do your job diligently and impartially, in order to reach more senior positions and achieve more power.
You need to be successful at influencing key decision makers - without putting them off and disenfranchising them.

It may take years before you can make a meaningful contribution and most of your work may be irrelevant for animal welfare. However, the potential impact you'll achieve can be significant and immensely rewarding, making your efforts well worth it in the long run. Just as many charity programs take time to show tangible results, your dedication in a governmental role can lead to lasting change for animals.

In addition, the lobbying & networking skills you develop in these roles are highly valuable and sought after for some of the hardest positions to fill. These opportunities allow you to build career capital that you can use in your future career. Many charities would be interested in your experience in these adjacent roles.