LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of new British lawmakers excitedly rallied in Parliament on Tuesday after the country passed a draft new constitution. Transformative Elections A Labour government was formed.
The building’s labyrinthine corridors echoed with the excited conversation of the House of Representatives’ 650 members, 335 of whom were attending for the first time, including 140 newly elected since the last elections in 2019.
The centre of British democracy had a back-to-school feel, from the rows of makeshift lockers set up in wood-paneled corridors to staff holding “Ask Me” signs to help bewildered new students.
The new House of Representatives will have a record high of 263 women (about 40% of the total), and 90 people of color, the highest number ever.
The youngest new MP is Labour’s Sam Carling, 22. 412 Labour MPs They were elected last week and will fill the government-side Green seats in the House of Commons.
Opposing them were the Conservatives, who lost 121 members; LDP72-strong, with a handful of representatives from other parties, including environmental groups. Green Party And anti-immigration Reform Britain.
As new faces arrived, lawmakers who lost their seats last week were packing up their office equipment and moving it out in boxes and suitcases.
First order of business: Electing a chairperson
Lawmakers’ first order of business was to select a speaker to oversee the business of the House and rein in an often chaotic session.
The Speaker is selected from among the members of the Diet and performs the role impartially, without regard to party affiliation.
Lindsay Hoyle He was elected speaker by the Labour Party in 2019 and was re-elected unopposed. He promised MPs he would remain “fair, impartial and independent”.
Following tradition, the Speaker feigned reluctance and was dragged to the Speaker’s bench by his colleagues, a practice that dates back to the time when Speakers who incurred the displeasure of the monarch were executed.
After tributes from party leaders including the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer Conservative Party Leader Rishi Sunak, The person elected as Speaker was escorted to the House of Lords by an official called the Black Rod to receive Royal Assent, i.e. formal recognition by Parliament. Charles III.
Starmer said all MPs had a responsibility to “put an end to politics that too often seems self-serving and self-centred, and to replace the politics of results with the politics of service”.
Sunak, whose Conservative party had just suffered a crushing election defeat, agreed: “In our politics we can have fierce arguments, as the Prime Minister and I have done for the past six weeks, and still respect each other.”
oath
After the speakers were in place, the members took the oath one by one, swearing allegiance to the King and “his heirs and successors”. Members could swear to a religious document of their choice or make a non-religious affirmation. The oath was first taken in English and could be repeated in Welsh, Ulster Scots, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Cornish.
The longest serving MPs – known as the Father and Mother of the House of Commons, Conservative MP Edward Leigh and Labour MP Diane Abbott – were sworn in first, followed by the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Leader of the Opposition, and the remaining MPs, in order of length of time in office.
Seven members of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein have also refused to swear allegiance to the King and are not sitting in Parliament in protest at British rule in Northern Ireland.
Getting to the point
Once all lawmakers have been sworn in (expected to take several days), the House will adjourn until July 17, when the new session will officially begin. Opening Ceremony of the National Diet.
The new government is expected to set out its legislative plans for next year in a speech read by the King from the Golden Throne.
The King’s speech is expected to include plans to set up a public green electricity company called Great British Energy, change town planning rules to allow more new homes to be built and nationalise Britain’s delay-plagued railways.
Holding the government to account, at least temporarily, will be a much-shrinking Conservative party led by Mr Sunak, who will remain leader of the opposition until the party chooses a successor.
