Legendary political journalist Michael Crick joins us in the studio, to discuss the progress each party is making in selecting their candidates with the general election now less than a year away.

Michael has been tracking candidate selections and reporting the results each week via his @TomorrowsMPs Twitter account. He explains how he is ‘lifting the secrecy on politics in the raw’ for what have hitherto been Britain’s ‘hidden elections’.

Who are the candidates and what are their backgrounds? Are there going to be more women MPs or more MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds? How much control do the central party machines exercise over local constituency choices? And who are the candidates we should keep an eye on, who might be the up-and-coming names in the next Parliament?

If they do get elected these candidates will need to get their offices up and running quickly. Dr Rebecca McKee is the author of a recent report about Parliament’s ‘unsung heroes’ – namely, MPs staff. Who they are and what they do? Rebecca joins us in the studio to talk about what newly-elected MPs need to think about to avoid recruitment pitfalls and get the best possible start to their parliamentary careers.

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