The Class of 24 - An analysis of the parliamentary candidates set to become our next MPs

The next general election looks set to return the highest proportion of newly elected MPs since 1945. • The UK’s political parties have now selected just under 90% of their prime candidates. Taking over from an existing MP, or challenging in a key target seat, these are the candidates who will constitute the cohort of newly elected MPs. • Drawing on Polimapper’s constituency and candidate profiles, this White Paper analyses the backgrounds of the 327 prime candidates that have been selected so far. • This data suggests the recent trend towards increasing diversity at Westminster has stalled. The profile of the Class of 24 remains similar to the current crop of MPs. • This research further illustrates how a career spent in and around politics is the most common professional background amongst tomorrow’s MPs (28%). By contrast there is a dearth of candidates with experience in front line medicine, teaching, or in science and technology. • Four fifths of the candidates in the Class of 24 had a direct local connection to the constituency in which they were selected, with just under half having already sat on a local council that covers that area. This provides fuel to the arguments of those, such as William Hague, who suggest that too ‘much localism is giving us second rate MPs’.