• How will such a large number of new MPs acclimatise to their new role?

• Will the large number of new MPs mean the Government has an easy ride when it comes to scrutiny in the first months of the Parliament?

• Will adjustments be needed to parliamentary rules to accommodate the large number of new MPs?

• Should the rules governing Opposition Days be amended to reflect the multi-party nature of the opposition?

• Three new Deputy Speakers are needed: should the Liberal Democrats get one of them?

• How quickly will the Government introduce its legislation after the King’s Speech?

• Will the Government pick up some of the legislation of the previous Conservative administration that was lost during the legislative wash-up prior to dissolution?

• Does the Prime Minister plan to appoint a Government of all the Talents?

  Is it easier for new Ministers to survive in the House of Lords than in the House of Commons?

• How will the Conservative Party organise its shadow front bench pending the leadership contest?

• Will the Prime Minister have to ruthlessly risk losing many MPs at the next election in order to get things done over the objections of constituency MPs?

• Which party won the nationwide Mock Elections in schools?

Hansard Society

• Back to Business: A guide to the start of the new Parliament (July 2024)

• Mock Elections 2024: The results are in!

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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:15:24 You're listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm. 00:00:16:01 - 00:00:41:10 Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox and I'm Mark D’Arcy. Coming up, it's 50% new. It's 40% female. Meet the new House of Commons of 2024. And who are going to be the stars in this vast new intake? MP watcher Michael Crick picks a few runners and riders, but places no bets. And matching up the ministers and the shadows. 00:00:41:12 - 00:00:49:11 All the leaders have choices to make about who will be in their top teams. 00:00:52:20 - 00:01:16:08 But first, Ruth, after a long, grueling, perhaps overlong and over grueling election campaign, the new House of Commons has finally taken shape. We all know it's got a massive Labour majority. We all know there's a massive new contingent of Liberal Democrats. We all know that the Conservatives while still being the official opposition, and that's a point we've discussed a couple of times, are a much reduced force in this new House of Commons. 00:01:16:08 - 00:01:34:07 There's a contingent of Greens, there's a contingent of reform MPs, there's a slightly bigger contingent of Plaid Cymru MPs, there's a much reduced contingent of SNP MPs and there's a startlingly large group of independents as well. So how is it all going to play out? What are your first impressions? Well, the first impression is just the scale of it. 00:01:34:07 - 00:01:57:10 It's 336, I think first time MPs, which is very, very large. I mean, bear in mind that the whole of the House of Commons is 650. It is an enormous number of new MPs who are, over the next coming weeks, just going to be finding their feet and trying to set things up. And their encounter with legislation and scrutiny and so on