“Liz Truss!” “Grant Shapps!” “Thérèse Coffey!” A mahogany-walled room full of newly minted Labour MPs – some elected for the first time – are cheering the names of Conservative bigwigs who lost their seats in this year’s general election. Nadia Whittome, 27 – once the youngest member of Parliament, AKA the “Baby of the House” (a title now taken by 22-year-old Sam Carling) – was the one who started this cheeky round of celebrations after Vogue ’s photographer asked everyone to loosen up for an informal shot. “We need a bingo sheet,” shouts trade unionist and teacher Amanda Martin, who took Portsmouth North from Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt in one of the biggest upsets of election night .
As we have witnessed, when the political pendulum swings left, it takes a fair few out in the process. It is a Monday in July, the first working day of a new government, which, barely 72 hours ago, swept to power in a victory of such scope that it will surely become the stuff of legend. After 14 years of Conservative rule, Keir Starmer ’s Labour transformed its devastating 2019 defeat into a landslide 174-seat majority.
Hundreds of new faces have entered the House of Commons, including record numbers of women and ethnic minorities, many of them drawn from Labour’s well-populated ranks. We have the first ever woman chancellor in Rachel Reeves and a female deputy prime minister in Angela Rayner , who is also the housing secretary. �.