Record 208 women MPs elected to Commons
‘Beginning of a journey’
MORE than 200 women have been elected to Parliament for the first time.
The number of female MPs eclipsed the previous high of 191 from the 2015 election by 17, bringing it to 208.
It also surpassed the total of 196 women elected to the Commons during the course of the last parliament, when subsequent by- elections are taken into account.
And it includes the UK’s first female Sikh MP. Labour’s Preet Gill secured 24,124 votes to hold the seat in Birmingham Edgbaston for Labour with a majority of 6,917.
The final constituency to declare was Kensington which, after several recounts, announced last night that Labour candidate Emma Dent Coad had taken the seat from the Conservatives. This confirmed that in all 208 of the 650 MPs elected would be female.
Overall 32 per cent of MPs are women, but there are significant variations between parties. For Labour the figure is 45 per cent, with 119 of their 262 MPs female. While 67 out of the 318 Tory MPs – 21 per cent – are women.
Miss Gill, 44, succeeded proBrexit Labour campaigner Gisela Stuart who stepped down when the election was called. She had been a Labour councillor in Sandwell since 2012. In her acceptance speech, Miss Gill paid tribute to her father, an immigrant bus driver from India who became a close friend of the first UK Sikh peer, Lord King.
She said: ‘My father came to this country from India with great aspiration for us all, and tonight this is the beginning of a journey he would have been proud of had he been here.’
Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of the Sikh Federation, said: ‘We are delighted to have the first Sikh woman MP in Preet.
‘She will be a fantastic MP, a credit to the Sikh community and an excellent role model.’ After the 2015 election, 68 of the 331 Tory MPs were women, with 99 out of 232 for Labour. In 1997, 101 of Labour’s 418 MPs were female. Among the other new female MPs elected on Thursday were Gillian Keegan, who held Chichester for the Conservatives, where Andrew Tyrie won a Tory majority of 24,413 two years ago.
Former minister Esther McVey returned to Parliament, taking Tatton in Cheshire, where George Osborne had quit. The former TV host was the most high-profile Tory casualty of 2015, ousted by Labour from Wirral West.
The Tories have not introduced the all-women shortlists used by Labour to raise the number of women MPs, but they have forced four local Welsh associations to accept female candidates. Former Liberal Democrat minister Jo Swinson was swept back to Westminster after ousting SNP MP John Nicolson. Miss Swinson regained her former seat from Mr Nicolson after overturning the 2,200 majority he picked up in 2015 – turning that into a 5,339 majority.
There will also be a record 51 ethnic minority MPs in the new House of Commons, according the integration thinktank Britain’s Future.
Constance Markievicz was the first woman elected to the British Parliament in 1918, following the passing of a law that allowed women to stand. She did not take her seat as she was a member of Sinn Fein.
Conservative Nancy Astor was the first woman to take her seat after winning a by-election in December 1919 for the Plymouth Sutton constituency.