It was less an election, more an earthquake. After a night of high drama at the ballot box, Boris Johnson swept triumphantly back into Downing Street as prime minister with a thumping majority of well over 70 seats, while Jeremy Corbyn promised to quit after leading Labour to its most crushing defeat since 1935. (Even Tony Blair’s old seat, Sedgefield, turned Tory). Meanwhile the Lib Dems lost their leader, Jo Swinson, who is no longer even an MP after losing her Westminster seat, and Remainers lost their chance to stop Brexit; it’s now almost certain to go ahead in January after all. But that’s not the only way Westminster has changed.
The new parliament starting work next week is set to be the most diverse yet, with one in 10 MPs from a non-white background, and the least male-dominated in history thanks to a new wave of women MPs - including a handful of high-fliers still only in their 20s.
Dehenna Davison was 13 when her dad was killed by a single blow to the head in a pub and was forced to grow up fast, ending up representing her mum and grandmother at a criminal injuries compensation tribunal when she was still at school. Now at just 23, she’s the new Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland in County Durham. ‘New bio. Eek,’ she tweeted in the small hours of Friday morning, changing her Twitter handle to reflect her victory.
Sara Britcliffe spent her gap year working as mayoress of the Lancashire town of Hyndburn and is now, aged 24, its first Tory MP in over a quarter of a century. Amy Callaghan (pictured) endured gruelling surgery for skin cancer when she was only 19 before going on eight years later to unseat Swinson, who rather touchingly used her resignation speech to credit her Scottish Nationalist Party rival with breaking another hole in the glass ceiling for young women.
The emerging female powerhouse in British politics right now is probably Nicola Sturgeon.
Over on the Labour benches meanwhile, Corbyn’s eventual retirement could yet pave the way for the party to get its first female leader: shadow cabinet ministers Angela Rayner, Emily Thornberry and Rebecca Long-Bailey are all thought to be considering running, along with the backbencher and feminist campaigner Jess Phillips.
The emerging female powerhouse in British politics right now, however, is probably Nicola Sturgeon. The Scottish National Party leader enjoyed a surge in Scotland and will now demand another vote on whether Scotland, which voted to remain, should break away from the UK and be free to decide its own relationship with the EU. That’s probably the last thing Johnson wants complicating his Brexit talks, so expect some fireworks.
And finally it’s been a good election for Carrie Symonds, the prime minister’s partner. She kept largely out of the public eye, choosing instead to do her own private campaign visits supporting young women candidates like Davison – naturally accompanied by Dilyn, the Downing Street rescue dog. Don’t be surprised to see Symonds, a former Tory aide in her own right, become a discreet ally behind the scenes for young women at Westminster. On the rollercoaster ride ahead of them, they might just need a friend.
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