List of United Kingdom MPs by seniority (2017–2019)
This is the list of United Kingdom MPs by seniority, 2017–2019. The Members of Parliament (MPs) are ranked by the beginning of their terms in office, in the House of Commons.
The House of Commons of the 57th Parliament of the United Kingdom was elected on 8 June 2017, first met on 13 June 2017 and dissolved on 6 November 2019. The constituencies and party affiliations listed reflect those during the 57th Parliament. Seats and party affiliations for other Parliaments will be different for certain members.
This article describes the criteria for seniority in the House of Commons, as set out in Father of the House: a House of Commons background paper.
Seniority criteria
The criteria for seniority, used in this article, are derived from the way that the Father of the House is selected. They are not laid down in Standing Orders but arise from the customary practice of the House of Commons.
The modern custom is that the Father of the House is the MP who has the longest continuous service. If two or more members were first elected in the same General Election (or at by-elections held on the same day), then priority is given to the one who was sworn in first. The order of swearing in is recorded in Hansard, the official record of proceedings.
When a member has had broken service, that does not affect his or her seniority (for the purpose of qualifying as the Father of the House) which is based on the latest period of continuous service.
The Sinn Féin members, who abstain from taking their seats at Westminster, have never been sworn in. They are ranked (in this list) after all other members who have taken their seats. Between themselves they are ranked by the first date of election, for the current period of continuous service. If they are equal on that criterion, then they are ranked in alphabetical order by surname.
In the House of Commons, the sole mandatory duty of the Father of the House is to preside over the election of a new Speaker whenever that office becomes vacant. The relevant Standing Order does not refer to this member by the title "Father of the House", referring instead to the longest-serving member of the House present who is not a Minister of the Crown (meaning that if the Father is absent or a government minister, the next person in line presides).
Summary of Members elected by party
The following was the composition of the Commons at dissolution at 00:01, Wednesday 6 November 2019, when all 650 seats became vacant pending the 2019 United Kingdom general election.[1]
Affiliation | Members[2] | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
After election | At dissolution | Change | ||
The Speaker | 1 | 1 | ||
Registered parliamentary parties | ||||
Conservative – Gov | 317 | 298 | 19 | |
Labour – OO | 262 | 242 | 20 | |
SNP | 35 | 35 | ||
Liberal Democrats | 12 | 20 | 8 | |
DUP – C&S | 10 | 10 | ||
Sinn Féin | 7 | 7 | ||
Change UK | N/A | 5 | 5 | |
Plaid Cymru | 4 | 4 | ||
Green | 1 | 1 | ||
Others | ||||
Independent | 1 | 21 | 20 | |
The Independents | N/A | 2 | 2 | |
BSJP | N/A | 1 | 1 | |
Suspended | N/A | 1 | 1 | |
Vacant | N/A | 2 | 2 | |
Total | 650 | |||
Voting total | 639 | 637 | 2 | |
Safe majority | 320 | 319 | 1 | |
Gov short by | 4 | 22 | 18 | |
Gov + C&S total | 326 | 307 | 19 | |
Gov + C&S majority | 13 | -23 | 36 |
- Notes
- For full details of changes during the 57th Parliament, see Defections and suspensions and By-elections.
- Labour, as the largest party not in government, took the role of Official Opposition (OO). The Co-operative Party was represented in the House of Commons by Labour MPs sitting with the Labour and Co-operative designation.[3]
- "Members elected" refers to the composition resulting from the election on 8 June 2017, but note that the confidence and supply arrangement (C&S) was only reached on 26 June.
- The "voting total" is the effective size of the House excluding vacancies, suspensions, and certain members (ten at dissolution): the Speaker, two (usually three) Deputy Speakers (one Labour and one Conservative) who have only a tie-breaking vote constrained by conventions,[4] and seven abstentionist members (Sinn Féin). This left relevant party voting totals as follows: Con 297, Lab 241, SF 0, Speaker 0.
- The "safe majority" (the number of seats needed to have a majority of one or two), "Gov short by" (the margin by which the governing Conservatives are short of that majority), and "Gov + C&S total" are based on the voting totals. The Conservative government entered into a confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to secure a small majority, which shrank due to defections, finally disappearing on 3 September 2019. Hence, the "Gov + C&S majority", calculated as the sum of voting Conservative and DUP members, less the sum of all other voting members, ended up negative.
List of Members of Parliament by seniority
This article assigns a numerical rank to each of the 650 members initially elected to the 57th Parliament. Other members, who were not the first person declared elected to a seat but who joined the House during the Parliament, are not assigned a number. Members named in italics are no longer sitting.
See also
References
- "Constituencies – MPs and Lords – UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
- "Current State of the Parties". UK Parliament. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
- "About the Party". Co-operative Party. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
- Boothroyd, David. "House of Commons: Tied Divisions". United Kingdom Election Results. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 30 June 1970. Retrieved 16 November 2011. (Clarke was the 365th member to take the oath in 1970.)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 1 July 1970. Retrieved 16 November 2011. (Skinner was the 579th member to take the oath in 1970.)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 10 May 1979. Retrieved 17 November 2011. (Sheerman to Field in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 16 June 1983. Retrieved 17 November 2011. (Barron to Soames in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 21 June 1983. Retrieved 17 November 2011. (Beckett sworn)
- "New Members". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 8 May 1984. Retrieved 17 November 2011. (Cash and Clwyd in order sworn). Link is broken, but click on 8 May 1984 (on the top left of the error page) and then NEW MEMBERS c736 on the index list, to get access to the required information.
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 18 June 1987. Retrieved 19 November 2011. (Redwood to Abbott in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 24 June 1987. Retrieved 19 November 2011. (Abbott sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 28 April 1992. Retrieved 19 November 2011. (Cunningham to Gillan in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 29 April 1992. Retrieved 19 November 2011. (Jenkin to Godsiff in order sworn)
- "New Members". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 14 June 1994. Retrieved 20 November 2011. (Hodge to Timms in order sworn) Link is broken, but click on 14 June 1994 (on the top left of the error page) and then NEW MEMBERS c517 on the index list, to get access to the required information.
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 8 May 1997. Retrieved 23 November 2011. (Simpson to Pound in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 9 May 1997. Retrieved 23 November 2011. (Hoyle to Swayne in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 13 May 1997. Retrieved 23 November 2011. (Hamilton to Chope in order sworn)
- "New Members Taking the Oath". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 28 November 2000. Retrieved 20 November 2011. (Hendrick to Bailey in order sworn) Link is broken, but click on 28 November 2000 (on the top left of the error page) and then NEW MEMBERS TAKING THE OATH c831 on the index list, to get access to the required information.
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 14 June 2001. Retrieved 24 November 2011. (Knight to Field in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 15 June 2001. Retrieved 24 November 2011. (Bellingham sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 19 June 2001. Retrieved 24 November 2011. (Farrelly to Wishart in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 20 June 2001. Retrieved 24 November 2011. (Mitchell sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 12 May 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2011. (Simpson to Hillier in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 16 May 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2011. (Wilson to MacNeil in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 17 May 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2011. (Cooper and Griffith in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard Digitisation Project. 23 July 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2011. (Sharma and Wilson in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2011. (Vaz to Rutley in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard. 20 May 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2011. (Turner to Pearce in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard. 24 May 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2011. (Berry to McGovern in order sworn)
- "New Members" (PDF). Hansard. Hansard. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2015. (Doughty sworn)
- "New Members" (PDF). Hansard. Hansard. 20 October 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2015. (Powell sworn)
- "New Members" (PDF). Hansard. Hansard. 3 December 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2015. (Champion to Reed in order sworn)
- "New Members" (PDF). Hansard. Hansard. 13 October 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2015. (McInnes sworn)
- "Members Sworn" (PDF). Hansard. Hansard. 19 May 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2015. (Hoare to Onn in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn" (PDF). Hansard. Hansard. 20 May 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2015. (Ryan to Cadbury in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn" (PDF). Hansard. Hansard. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2015. (Harris to Donelan in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn" (PDF). Hansard. Hansard. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015. (Newlands to Johnson in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017. (Davey to Williams in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard. 15 June 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017. (Ruane to Russell-Moyle in order sworn)
- "Members Sworn". Hansard. Hansard. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017. (Swinson to Coad in order sworn)
- "New Member - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk.