Should MPs pay interns?

Radio Five Live have just run a feature on the estimated 450 interns working in the Commons; mostly unpaid.

Research from Unite, the trade union, suggested that a dozen MPs were each employing five interns. 

Radio Five talked to 'Susannah' who had worked for a Labour MP unpaid and still hadn't received expenses that were submitted in April.

The suggestion is that all interns should be paid the minimum wage in order to ensure interning - what was described as the first run on the ladder to become an MP - did not become something that only children from wealthy families could enjoy.

The danger of requiring interns to be paid is that some young people - wanting to work for free in order to get the political experience - might lose the opportunity.

The fact that the standard minimum wage applies to young people is a contributory explanation for the fact that Britain has the highest youth unemployment in Europe (according to data compiled by CCHQ):