In what was a highly unusual and unique election which saw David Cameron and Nick Clegg form a coalition government a whole new breed of politicians is entering Parliament and were now seeing a the birth of Britian’s new political class. The middle class dominate the new parliament, with financiers, lawyers and consultants in the house. There is at least one Mormon in Britain’s new parliament, plus a black-belt karate expert, a female football coach and a man who set a world record for trekking into the Arctic with his mum.
A number of trends can be discovered from the 233 new MPs trying to find their way around the 650-seat Commons.
- They are slightly younger than in 1997 when 256 new MPs were elected. Some 34% of the new MPs are aged 30-39, compared with 29% in 1997, and 41% are aged 40-49.
- They are overwhelmingly male, especially the Conservatives. Overall the Commons will have 139 female MPs, 21% of the total, with 48 Tories, 78 Labour and seven Liberal Democrats. Of the 233 new arrivals, 72 are women – just one more than in 1997 – including 36 Tories, 31 Labour and one Lib Dem.
- 35% of MPs in the new parliament went to independent schools, even though such schools educate just 7% of all pupils. More than half of Tory MPs attended independent schools and 20 out of the party’s 306 MPs come from one institution – Eton. Roughly 40% of Conservative MPs, 30% of Liberal Democrats and 20% of Labour MPs are Oxbridge graduates.