Job Opening – Executive and Parliamentary Assistant

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Closing Date: 13th January 2017

 
Job Title: Executive and Parliamentary Assistant

 

Working For: Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea CBE, DL

 

Location: London

 

Salary: £24k

 

Job Details

Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea CBE, DL – a Crossbench Peer, the Founder and Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership and Chancellor of the University of Birmingham is seeking a highly motivated Executive and Parliamentary Assistant. Working under Lord Bilimoria’ s Office Manager and Parliamentary Researcher and working alongside Lord Bilimoria’ s Personal Assistant and the wider Cobra team, the selected candidate will assist Lord Bilimoria with business, parliamentary, personal and charitable affairs.

Job description:

  • Manage Lord Bilimoria’s mailbox and respond to all correspondence
  • Research and draft articles, opinion pieces and press releases
  • Occasionally organising events in Parliament and assisting with tours
  • Prepare presentations
  • Manage Lord Bilimoria’s social media; twitter account, websites – lordbilimoria.co.uk and www.zoroastrianappg.com

Key traits:

The ideal applicant would have experience of:

working in Parliament

dealing with and processing a large amount of correspondence – email and written

dealing with media in print, radio and television.
Furthermore, applicants should possess:

  • An excellent working knowledge of MS Office, particularly Outlook
  • Impeccable spelling and grammar
  • A willingness to work some evenings and weekends
  • A keen understanding of how Parliament works

 

Desirable but not essential:

  • Knowledge of the procedures and membership of the House of Lords
  •  Awareness of South Asian culture, politics and business practice
  •  University-level education

While it is not expected that selected candidates will be politically neutral, they must prevent their personal political views from interfering with Lord Bilimoria’s status as an Independent Crossbencher, and the duty of non-partisanship that such status entails.

 

Interview/Start Dates

Applicants may be contacted for interview before the closing date and we may appoint before the closing date.

Application Details

Please submit a CV (no longer than two sides) and a cover letter (no longer than one side), both as PDF documents, to Lord Bilimoria’s Office Manager and Parliamentary Researcher, Monica Sharma at sharmamc@parliament.uk

E-mails must include the subject line “Executive and Parliamentary Assistant application”.

Please direct any further enquiries to Monica Sharma, via the e-mail address above. Note that not all queries can be answered before the deadline.

It may not be possible for us to contact candidates who we cannot invite for interview.

Website: http://www.lordbilimoria.co.uk/

 

 

Speech – Black and Minority Ethnic People: Workplace Issues

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In his final debate of the 2015-16 parliamentary session, Lord Bilimoria spoke about the issues faced by ethnic minorities in the workplace and sought to identity ways in which to boost the employment prospects of minorities in the UK.  He celebrated the strides that the UK has made on this issue, but noted that more action is needed, especially on increasing BAME participation in leadership roles and at the top positions in business and politics.

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Article – FT: The Great British Curry Crisis

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Great British Curry Crisis image

Lord Bilimoria, Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Curry Catering Industry, was recently interviewed as part of a comprehensive article written about the British curry industry by Malcolm Moore, a journalist at the Financial Times.  The article, titled the The Great British Curry Crisis, detailed the history of curry restaurants in Britain and noted the major issues facing the industry, focusing in particular on the impact that a shortage of skilled South Asian chefs entering the business is having on the industry as a whole. Read More →

Article – Cobra beer tycoon slams George Osborne’s tax credit cuts

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Monday saw a passionate exchange of words in the House of Lords as Lords debated the government’s contentious tax credit reform proposals.  During the session, Lord Bilimoria voted in favour measures which forced the government to review its current proposals – which many criticise for being too blunt and for being too harsh to the lowest earners in the UK.

Shortly after the debate, Lord Bilimoria wrote to the Daily Mirror to explain the actions he took to ensure that the poorest people in the UK were protected from the proposals put forth by the government.

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Speech – India Link Awards

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On 3rd July, Lord Bilimoria was invited to be the Chief Guest Speaker at the Annual India Link Awards. He spoke about India-British relations and their smart power on the world stage, and his comprehensive speech (a transcript of which is available below) was extremely well received by all those present.

To cap off a wonderful night, Lord Bilimoria was also awarded with the India Link International Indian of the Year Award 2014-15, which recognised his significant achievements in the business and education sectors.

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News – Cobra launch Chef Initiative to help boost the UK’s curry industry

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This week, Lord Bilimoria, in his role as the founder of Cobra Beer, launched a national campaign that will see some of Britain’s best chefs share their knowledge and expertise with chefs from across the UK’s curry restaurant community.

The Chef Initiative campaign was announced by Cobra in response to the challenges faced by many in the curry industry, which have been exacerbated by a sharp decline in the number of highly-skilled chefs entering into the industry from abroad, as a way to give back to the ethnic restaurant community.  The campaign was unveiled at an event in London’s Cinnamon Kitchen, and was co-hosted by award-winning chef Vivek Singh – one of the six chefs leading the training sessions over the coming months.

The initiative will see workshops taking place across the country, which will be led by Alfred Prasad, former chef at Tamarind, Vivek Singh, The Cinnamon Club & Cinnamon Kitchen, Cyrus Todiwala OBE DL, Café Spice Namaste, Mehernosh Mody La Porte des Indes, Vineet Bhatia, Vineet Rosi, and Atul Kochhar, Benares.

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Speech – Defence Budget

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In an impassioned speech in the House of Lords, Lord Bilimoria raised serious concerns about the strength of the British armed forces going forward.  Citing a study conducted by PwC, he also stressed the overwhelming public support for the armed forces and detailed the impact that continued cuts to the UK’s defence budget would have on Britain’s capability to project power abroad.

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Article – Tories trying to be “nastier” than Ukip, and “economically illiterate” Theresa May

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Lord Bilimoria recently spoke to the New Statesman  about the Conservative party’s immigration policies and the business credibility of the Labour party in the run up to the 2015 General Election.

In the article, he put forward the case for implementing a coherent immigration policy that encouraged bright students to remain in the UK and explained the reasons why he is optimistic about Britain’s future.

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