The protest unveiled the 'Intern Bill of Rights' standards that NUS, Intern Aware and Internocracy believe employers should follow and interns should expect.
The action comes on the day in which the Speaker is to launch the Parliamentary Placement Scheme, a new scheme to provide paid intern opportunities to people from more deprived backgrounds, and follows statements by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
The Deputy Prime Minister has pledged to end the culture of privilege around Westminster internships that means that only those with the right connections and sufficient funds to work for free in Central London for at least two months were able to take advantage of this important experience. Mr Clegg also promised to end the use of unpaid interns amongst Liberal Democrats, however, as of today MPs and Liberal Democrat Head Office are still advertising for unpaid interns.
Commenting on the campaign, NUS Vice-President (Society and Citizenship), Susan Nash, said:
“Unpaid internships entrench privilege as only a small group of people can afford the expense of working for free, full-time and for around three months in order to gain the experience that is needed to get a paying job in politics. If MPs are not willing to treat interns as they do all other workers they cannot expect other industries to follow suit."
"Being an intern is not like work experience, it involves hard-work and long hours. Young people are willing to put in the work in order to get a foot on the career ladder but if they are not paid at least the minimum wage then only a small number of people will be able to afford to take advantage.”