parliamentary constituency. A record number of women (208) were elected as MPs.[1]
parliamentary session was the longest since the formation of the United Kingdom in 1707, and the longest to sit at Westminster since the Long Parliament in the 17th century.[3] The second and last parliamentary session however was the shortest since October 1948,[4] lasting less than a month, from 14 October 2019 until Parliament dissolved at 00:01 on 6 November 2019.[5]
to bring the next election forward to December 2019 from its original scheduled May 2022 date.
House of Commons composition
Below are graphical representations of the House of Commons showing party strengths directly after the 2017 general election, at important intermediate points, and immediately prior to dissolution. This is not an actual seating plan of the House, which has only five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the Speaker of the House of Commons and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time.
2017–19 UK House of Commons
As at dissolution (see image description page for date)
18 February 2019 (following the initial Labour defections to the Independent Group)
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 had only a tie-breaking vote constrained by conventions,[8] 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 government entered into a confidence and supply agreement 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 Democratic Unionist Party members, less the sum of all other voting members, was negative at dissolution.
List of MPs elected in the general election
The following table is a list of MPs elected, ordered by constituency. Names of incumbents are listed where they stood for re-election; for details of other defeated candidates and the incumbent who stood down in those cases see individual constituency articles.
^ abcdThe incumbents for these seats were originally members of political parties before either being suspended or resigning from their respective parties and subsequently sitting as independents for the remainder of the Parliament.
Deputy Speakers
The Speaker nominated Sir David Amess (Conservative, Southend West) and George Howarth (Labour, Knowsley) to serve as Temporary Deputy Speakers until the Deputy Speakers had been elected. The election of Deputy Speakers took place on 28 June 2017.
Although Deputy Speakers do not resign from their parties, they cease to vote (except to break ties) and they do not participate in party-political activity until the next election.
As the only contesting member from the government side, Eleanor Laing's name did not appear on the ballot paper, and she was duly declared First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means.
When Sir Lindsay Hoyle was elected Speaker on 4 November 2019 in succession to John Bercow, the post of Chairman of Ways and Means (one of the Deputy Speakers) became vacant and remained so when Parliament was dissolved on 6 November.
John Mann vacated the seat for Bassetlaw on 28 October 2019, and the SpeakerJohn Bercow vacated his Buckingham seat on 4 November 2019. The seats remained vacant until dissolution and the election of new MPs in the general election on 12 December 2019.
Defections and suspensions
The label under which MPs sit in the House of Commons can change if they leave or are suspended from or expelled by their party. When suspended, they effectively[16] become independents. This Parliament has had an unusually large number of these changes, resulting in the number of MPs sitting as independents rising to its highest level (33) since the Ballot Act 1872 (which introduced secret ballots for elections in the United Kingdom).[citation needed]
The Conservative and Labour parties lost numerous MPs through suspensions and defections to other parties. In February 2019, 8 Labour and 3 Conservative MPs formed a new grouping (later a party in its own right), Change UK. That grouping experienced a split in June, with some of its members resigning to form The Independents. The Liberal Democrats have made a gain of 8 seats since the opening of Parliament, including some former Change UK members. The government lost its majority on 3 September 2019, when the Conservative MP Phillip Lee defected to the Liberal Democrats. Later the same day, the Conservatives expelled 21 of their MPs for voting against the government, 10 of whom were later readmitted to the party on 29 October.
Suspended from Labour after being convicted of perverting the course of justice.[35] Expelled from Labour in January 2019.[36] Removed from office on 1 May 2019 by a recall petition.[37]
Suspended from the Conservatives after voting against the Government, on a motion to allow Parliament to control the order paper in order to introduce a bill to prevent a no-deal Brexit.[51][52]
Suspended from the Conservatives on 3 September after voting against the Government, on a motion to allow Parliament to control the order paper in order to introduce a bill to prevent a no-deal Brexit.[51][52]
Whip restored 29 October alongside after meeting with the Prime Minister; standing down at the next election or agreed to support his Withdrawal Agreement if re-elected.[55]
Suspended from the House of Commons for 6 months, following Commons Standards Committee's findings that he "expressed willingness" to purchase cocaine for sex workers.[61]
^"The dissolution ended the shortest parliamentary session in just over 70 years, with the Commons having met for only 19 days since the state opening on 14 October." "Starting gun fired on five-week race for No 10". BBC News. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.