Gary’s Office

My work as an MEP representing the North West and as Labour's Leader in the European Parliament involves long hours, straddles several countries, is hectic and often challenging.  In order to provide the best possible representation for my constituents, I have assembled a dedicated team to support me.

I run three offices.  My North West constituency operation is run out of Radcliffe in Greater Manchester.  I also have a permanent base at the European Parliament in Brussels as well as an office in Strasbourg for the Parliament’s monthly plenary session.  While my Brussels and Strasbourg offices are provided by the European Parliament, I am responsible for running and maintaining my constituency office in Radcliffe.  I use the general expenditure allowance provided by the Parliament which is currently €4,052 a month, plus a staff allowance of €16,916 a month.

The Radcliffe office is open to the public during normal office hours, Monday to Friday. In this office you will find the rock on which my entire empire rests, namely Roger.  He is described as my Office Manager although his range of responsibilities is legion. Roger deals with all the accounts, pays the wages, fills in all the tax and social security forms, pays the bills and tries to keep us out of the red.  At the same time he deals with constituency enquiries, negotiates with all our suppliers and makes sure the roof doesn’t leak.  He also helps with the writing of articles and deals with press enquiries.   Roger works four days a week for me.

He is ably accompanied by my wife Charo, who brings her long secretarial experience to bear on the running and organisation of the office. In addition to the normal secretarial duties, she organises my UK diary and is the first point of contact for anyone contacting the office.  Unfortunately, this also makes her the brunt of regrettably too many abusive calls which she handles with amazing patience and diplomacy.  The fact that she is my wife means that I can exploit her shamelessly.  As I am usually in Strasbourg or Brussels Monday to Thursday, a lot of my UK work gets done at the weekends, usually on Sundays.  So guess who has to type things up then and ferry the work between my home in Bolton and my office?  

The fact that Charo is Spanish by birth has proved invaluable in dealing with the many Spanish cases we get, ranging from people banged up in prison to all manner of holiday home disasters.  She has however asked me to point out that she is not responsible for every decision the Spanish Government makes, nor for that matter does she control the future of Gibraltar.  She wants me to make that clear because there are some people out there who appear to enjoy nothing more than ring up to harangue her on the latest Spanish issue.  She is a British citizen so those people who tell her that she should go back home are barking up totally the wrong tree.

Charo also used to be fluent in French.  But as the need for expertise in French is on the wane, she finds she is getting very rusty.   That’s a great pity because in one of her previous jobs as the PA to the managing director of a major company, she had to use her French, Spanish and English every day.  For the record Charo is paid in the £20,000 to £30,000 a year salary band although she would want me to point out that her earnings are nearer the bottom of that band rather than the top.  Charo works full-time in the Radcliffe office.  Additionally Bernadette does a few hours a week for us keeping the office clean, tidy and in generally good order.

I also employ what are called in Euro-jargon service providers. These are people who are generally freelance and perform specific tasks for me while at the same time working for other clients. As self-employed people, they deal with their own tax and national insurance and I pay them a contracted price. Theresa does two days a week liaising with key stakeholders in the region, representing me at events I cannot get to, organising meetings and conferences and acting as my link with the offices of my fellow North West Labour MEPs.  Basically doing anything and everything that Roger and Charo are unable to deal with.  Additionally, Liz does one day a week for me on press and media work.  From time to time we also take on students wanting work experience for a week or two.

Naturally when things go wrong, we call in the experts.  So computer crashes bring Brian to the rescue.  He seems to have a magic touch with dodgy technology and I would recommend him to anybody. Plumbing and heating problems are dealt with by Phil and who I would also wholeheartedly recommend.  For our other equipment needs such as phones, photocopier and franking machine, we have service contracts.  That completes the picture for Radcliffe. I am lucky to have such high quality and dedicated staff and I still feel a sense of pride when people compliment me on the quality of service they receive from my office.

In Brussels you will find Isabel running the office.  She arranges my Brussels/Strasbourg diary, deals with the constant demands of lobbyists for a piece of my time and, when she gets a spare moment, does research for me, writes briefings, and updates the website. She also works with Roger on constituency issues and follows my committee work.

I usually employ young graduates in my Brussels office and encourage them to only stay for no more than two or three years before developing their careers further.  I am proud of the fact that people who have worked for me over the years have gone on to bigger and better things, including Vice-President of a major multinational corporation, senior positions in the civil service and one American is now in the Secret Service (I’m not sure if I am meant to be telling you that!).  I take developing the potential of my staff very seriously. Mind you if they can survive me, they can survive anything!  

Working in the Brussels office can be very demanding with staff having to juggle a range of priorities.  I usually also employ another temporary member of staff in Brussels. This can be someone who is required to work abroad for six months as part of their university course or a person who has graduated recently and wants to gain experience in a politician’s office before getting a more permanent job.  Currently this position is filled by Frances a graduate who works with Isabel doing the tasks I have already mentioned.  Fortuitously she has turned out to be a technological whiz kid who comes running whenever I scream with frustration at the computers and sorts the problem out.   

Either Isabel or Frances accompanies me to Strasbourg one week in every month for the European Parliament plenary sessions.  I pay their hotel, travel and a daily allowance to cover the cost of meals and other out of pocket expenses. We also sometimes have students doing work experience, like Soniya who joined us for the month of May this year.  Another one recently was Adam who was taken on in part because he told me that I had spoken at his primary school when he was 9 years old and he had been impressed by what I had to say!  Flattery can get you everywhere even with an old cynic like me.

Again I am very well served in my Brussels office by the enthusiastic and able young people I employ. I ensure that all my staff have adequate health cover because the reciprocal arrangements we have with the Belgian health service do not cover all costs. I also contribute to a pension fund for all my permanent staff in the UK and Brussels.

Finally, jointly with other Labour MEPs I also employ a political liaison officer based in London, who is line managed by the EPLP Secretary General.