Parliament welcomes three new MPs as two by-elections triggered
S
ir Lindsay Hoyle joked there are “too many Keirs” because the youngest MP took his seat within the House of Commons alongside two different newcomers.
The Commons Speaker made the quip after Labour’s Keir Mather swore the oath of allegiance to the King as Parliament returned from its summer season recess on Monday.
At 25, Mr Mather is now the youngest MP within the Commons – the Baby of the House – after overturning a 20,137 Conservative majority to win the North Yorkshire seat of Selby and Ainsty for Sir Keir Starmer’s occasion.
Mr Mather was adopted by Conservative Steve Tuckwell, who held the seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip for the Tories after the dramatic resignation of former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Liberal Democrat Sarah Dyke additionally took her seat on Monday after successful Somerton and Frome.
She takes over from former Tory MP David Warburton following his resignation after he admitted cocaine use.
The three arrivals come at first of a busy interval in politics, with occasion convention season weeks away, the King’s Speech and two additional electoral battles imminent.
Labour and the Lib Dems are each vying to flip a 24,664-strong majority within the Mid Bedfordshire seat of former Tory tradition secretary and Johnson ally Nadine Dorries.
Government chief whip Simon Hart requested for the writ to set off the by-election to be moved on September 12.
Meanwhile, a combat for the constituency of Rutherglen and Hamilton, prompted by former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier’s Covid-19 rule-breaking, might be carefully fought by Labour and the SNP.
The SNP’s Owen Thompson moved the writ on Monday to set off the competition.
By-elections must happen between 21 and 27 working days from the issuing of the writ, suggesting the Rutherglen and Hamilton contest could possibly be on October 5 and Mid Bedfordshire in mid-October.