Hundreds bid to work for Davies

CHRIS DAVIES

A JOB vacancy in the office of an Oldham Euro-MP attracted 755 applications in seven days.

Liberal Democrat Chris Davies said he was overwhelmed by the response to his search for a new parliamentary assistant to work in Brussels.

“The quality of the people who applied was very high indeed, and I am struck by the huge number of young people who are now working in a wide range of organisations for free or for expenses only in order to gain experience,” he said.

“It’s a practice that could be seen as a type of exploitation, but it’s becoming a necessity for anyone who wants to get to the front in the competition for jobs of this kind.”

Applications for the £22,000 a year job were invited from people of any nationality so long as they could speak English.

The job eventually went to a French woman who is a graduate of both Lancaster and Manchester universities.

Mr Davies employs three full-time staff at his North-West office in Stockport, and one to assist him in his legislative work in the European Parliament. He has never employed anyone related to him.

He said: “All of the candidates I interviewed said they loved working in Brussels alongside people from so many different countries.

“It’s a sentiment I share about work in the European Parliament. Faced with such a huge choice the final selection was painfully difficult to make.

“Over the past 10 years I have employed British, Italian, Greek and Portuguese assistants, all of them excellent and who have moved on to greater things.

“I’m glad this time to have been able to appoint someone of a different nationality yet who has lived for five years in the North-West of England.”