Teacher and author Dale Butler is set to chuck his job in favour of a seat in Parliament for the Progressive Labour Party.

It is illegal for teachers to keep their jobs and be MPs -- and Mr. Butler, if he wins a seat, revealed he would give up his head teacher job.

Mr. Butler -- who hopes to line up with Alex Scott in Warwick East in a bid to unseat Environment Minister Irving Pearman -- said yesterday he had thought long and hard on the issue.

He added: "I have been out assisting Alex Scott in the constituency since February and it's my hope the PLP will consider me favourably as a candidate for that area.'' Mr. Butler - recently confirmed as the head of the new Northlands Primary School under a massive shake-up of the education system -- has been on the PLP's list of would-be MPs for some time.

Earlier, this year he admitted he was reluctant to give up his job as he would be leaving at "the top of my career'' with things he still wanted to accomplish in teaching.

Mr. Butler added then that he also had a young family to support and it would be difficult in the future to get back into teaching again.

But yesterday he said he had plumped for a part-time MP's salary and whatever job he could find.

Mr. Butler said he accepted that those in the Government arm of the Civil Service should not be allowed to become MPs because of the traditional requirement of impartiality.

But he said teachers were not a full part of the Civil Service structure and should be allowed to become MPs.

Under the current rules, Mr. Butler, as a teacher, would be allowed to take a leave of absence to contest a seat.

He said: "The whole time you are campaigning, you don't get a penny. If you win, you have seven days to clear your desk -- if you lose, you go back to work the next day.'' He added: "It's an anachronism which ought to be challenged -- lawyers are allowed to argue the law which Parliament decides and that is surely a conflict of interest bigger than a teacher's.

"In a real democracy and in a small country like this, you need as many people as possible to serve. But at the moment, only those with privilege can really serve.

"They used the law to prevent people from serving rather than encouraging them.

"And the Government is obviously in no mood to change these type of laws -- but it will be maybe one of the top ten things for a PLP Government.'' At the last General Election in October 1993, Mr. Scott took a Warwick East UBP seat from sitting MP Gerald Simons, with veteran MP Mr. Pearman topping the poll with an increased share of the vote on the 1989 tussle.

DALE BUTLER -- Entering the political fray.

POLITICS PTL