Baroness Worthington and her unpaid intern blunder

Yesterday the Daily Mail picked up on Bryony Worthington’s advertisement for an unpaid intern:

“For some reason, however, Baroness Worthington — Bryony to friends — states that the aide will ideally ‘like children’. Can it be that she’s looking for a free babysitter? Some who saw her ad on a House of Commons website thought so.

And lo and behold, within a week, the ad was gone — with colleagues suspecting Labour apparatchiks ordered her to take it down.

Says Bryony, 38: ‘It’s been implied I’m trying to get away without paying someone. But since my Lords role doesn’t have a salary, I can’t be expected to provide payment for an assistant. I only took down the post early because I’ve been inundated with applications and wanted to reply to each one personally.’”

So how personally did she reply to these applicants? Well, not very personally at all. One prospective applicant sent an email asking for more information about the role, particularly in regards to ‘like children’, no CV or covering letter was ever sent and yet this was the response our prospective intern received:

“Many thanks for sending your cv and covering letter for the role of volunteer parliamentary assistant to Baroness Worthington, as advertised on www.w4mp.org.

I received a large volume of applications all of which I have read with interest. I am sorry to inform you that on this occasion you did not make it on to the shortlist.

I hope you find a suitable role soon and wish you all the very best for the future.

Thanks again for your interest,

 

Best wishes
Bryony Worthington”

Now if she really had read them all ‘with interest’ she would have realised that the previously mentioned person didn’t even apply for the position. Very personal, Baroness Worthington.

Photo credit: Labourlist.org