{"id":91396,"date":"2024-07-09T20:56:06","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T20:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/09\/an-amazing-sense-of-excitement-new-mps-take-it-all-in\/"},"modified":"2024-07-09T20:56:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T20:56:06","slug":"an-amazing-sense-of-excitement-new-mps-take-it-all-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/09\/an-amazing-sense-of-excitement-new-mps-take-it-all-in\/","title":{"rendered":"‘An amazing sense of excitement’ – New MPs take it all in"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Brian Wheeler,\u00a0<\/span>Political reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SarahSarah Smith <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Labour MP Sarah Smith in the family room at the House of Commons<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“It\u2019s finally dropped with me, what I have done.”<\/p>\n

Steffan Aquarone sounds more than a little over-awed by his first experience of sitting in the House of Commons chamber.<\/p>\n

“It was all a bit hypothetical before,” says the newly-elected Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk. “But sitting in the chamber it suddenly felt very real.”<\/p>\n

And his first impression of that chamber?<\/p>\n

“It was much smaller than I imagined!”<\/p>\n

At least he managed to get a seat. <\/p>\n

There are so many Labour MPs on the government benches there is not enough space for them all in the chamber. Dozens had to sit in the public gallery to watch Sir Lindsay Hoyle\u2019s re-election as Speaker and the ceremonial opening speeches by new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and all the opposition party leaders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I actually ended up standing right near the doors because it was so busy,” says Sarah Smith, one of the new Labour intake.<\/p>\n

“It was just an amazing sense of excitement for what\u2019s to come,” she says, of her first taste of life on the famous green benches.<\/p>\n

The new MP for Hyndburn, in Lancashire, seems just as excited that her four-month-old son Eli, who came down with her to London, is getting to experience all of this.<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t he be too young to remember his first day in Parliament?<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve got some pretty cool photos!” she laughs.<\/p>\n

Ms Smith has recruited friends and family to take care of Eli while she is in the Commons chamber \u2013 and is hoping to get a place for him in a local nursery, as Parliament\u2019s in-house creche is already oversubscribed. <\/p>\n

She seems unphased by the challenge.<\/p>\n

“I think it\u2019s demonstrating for women that it is possible to do it. It\u2019s not easy but there are ways through this. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s important that we have mothers, parents, carers etc all being represented here.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"HouseHouse of Commons<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One of the first jobs of the new Parliament was to choose a new Speaker, with Sir Lindsay Hoyle re-elected<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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It\u2019s easy to spot the newbie MPs on their first day \u2013 they are all wearing green and white striped lanyards. Some look only slightly less bewildered than the parties of schoolchildren being shown round Parliament.<\/p>\n

There is a lot to take in.<\/p>\n

They all began Tuesday in the Commons chamber for an off-camera briefing on how it all works \u2013 before being herded upstairs to committee rooms for security briefings and party meetings.<\/p>\n

And then it was back into the chamber for their first taste of actual parliamentary proceedings.<\/p>\n

Some, like Liberal Democrat Angus Macdonald \u2013 who became the final MP to be declared a winner on Saturday<\/a> – had never set foot in the building before.<\/p>\n

“From the outside it\u2019s exquisite, from the inside it\u2019s even more so,” says the new MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-Shire.<\/p>\n

“I consider it such an honour to be here. If we had been moved to a modern building for the refurbishment it would have been a real shame for us new kids.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PeterPeter Prinsley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Peter Prinsley ran into a former patient on his first day<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Some of the new arrivals have worked for years to become an MP. <\/p>\n

Others, like Peter Prinsley, the new Labour MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, were last-minute selections who had not expected to win at the start of the campaign.<\/p>\n

One of the first people Mr Prinsley, an ear nose and throat surgeon, bumped into when he arrived was Paul, a member of the House of Commons security staff, who happens to be one of his former patients.<\/p>\n

“I think my day job is going to have to change, frankly,” Mr Prinsley told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“It’s a bit of a difficult job to change suddenly. So it’s going to take me a little while to reorganise things.”<\/p>\n

Like all the new MPs, he will have to make sense of Parliament’s unique geography.<\/p>\n

“The hardest part of this job, when you first get here, is finding your way around. You find you get lost – a lot,” says Reform UK MP Lee Anderson.<\/p>\n

The party’s leader Nigel Farage says it is down to Mr Anderson \u2013 who defected from the Tories earlier this year \u2013 to ensure the five Reform MPs don’t.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019ll soon settle in,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"HouseHouse of Commons<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nigel Farage was elected as an MP on his eighth attempt<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The sight of Mr Farage on the back row of the opposition benches \u2013 after so many years of trying to get elected to the UK Parliament \u2013 will take some getting used to.<\/p>\n

Another striking image is former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now an independent, on the opposition benches alongside Mr Farage and the Conservatives.<\/p>\n

But at least these two are familiar faces.<\/p>\n

Sir Lindsay has the task of learning the names and faces of more than 300 new people over the next few weeks, so he can call them to speak in debates.<\/p>\n

The Speaker\u2019s staff are testing him \u2013 and competing against each other on a quiz game they have found online with audio clips and pictures of all 650 MPs.<\/p>\n

Sir Lindsay is also a regular in the members\u2019 tea room, where he can meet the new arrivals face-to-face.<\/p>\n

He told the BBC: “I am so proud of the warm welcome House of Commons staff have given this record number of new MPs to Parliament.<\/p>\n

“Each Member has been assigned a buddy to help them navigate the labyrinth of staircases, rooms and passages across the estate; secured them laptops, guided them to security briefings – and generally made them feel at home.<\/p>\n

“The buzz has been incredible. I am looking forward to getting to know my new colleagues, and – with the help of my team – learning everyone\u2019s names.”<\/p>\n

The new MPs will soon get over their sense of awe at their new work place. All speak of their determination to get on with the job and make a difference for their constituents.<\/p>\n

The sense of being all in it together \u2013 as they are shuttled from one briefing to the next \u2013 will no doubt disappear too, as normal hostilities resume in the Commons.<\/p>\n

But this is one day none of them will forget in a hurry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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20 minutes ago By\u00a0Brian Wheeler,\u00a0Political reporter Sarah Smith Labour MP Sarah Smith in the family room at the House of Commons “It\u2019s finally dropped with me, what I have done.” Steffan Aquarone sounds more than a little over-awed by his first experience of sitting in the House of Commons chamber. “It was all a bit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[17532,7206,1344,7922],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91398,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91396\/revisions\/91398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}