New MPs take their places in Parliament as Commons reconvenes

NEWLY-ELECTED MPs have been navigating their way through the corridors of power on their first day in Parliament.

The 226 fresh faces in the Commons yesterday included Labour's Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Tristram Hunt, the Staffordshire Moorlands' Conservative representative Karen Bradley, Tory MP for Stafford Jeremy Lefroy and Congleton's new MP, fellow Conservative Fiona Bruce.

MP Joan Walley follows tradition to 'drag' John Bercow to his chair after he was re-elected as Speaker of the Commons as MPs gathered for the first time since the election.

The new intake may have participated in yesterday's re-appointment of Commons Speaker John Bercow, but will remain "MPs-elect" until they are sworn in tomorrow.

Mr Hunt compared the experience of dealing with Parliament's bewildering array of rules and procedures with the first day at a new school.

He said: "It was a mixture of the administrative tasks required to set up a small business and the flummoxing ceremony of the election of the Speaker.

"Like many new MPs, I don't have an office, so I'm hot-desking at the moment, which enables me to make friends among colleagues and share information, or the lack of it.

"I was lucky enough to befriend a more experienced MP who explained the really important things, like where to get a good bacon butty, so I spent part of the morning eating my butty and chatting with Jack Straw."

Mr Lefroy is also without an office, but has managed to recruit staff to help manage his constituency work.

He said: "From day one I've been receiving a lot of correspondence from constituents and I've now managed to appoint some staff to help me deal with that.

"It was a very strange feeling walking into the Commons chamber as an MP, and it didn't seem quite real.

"I think being sworn in will really bring it home in terms of the responsibility we have taken on."

Mrs Bradley spent the weekend and Monday in her constituency and arrived in London yesterday.

She said: "I'm trying to spend as much of my time in the Moorlands as possible, but I did enjoy my first day in Parliament.

"There was a lot of procedure and pomp and ceremony to go through, but it was also very exciting."

Congleton MP Mrs Bruce was unavailable to give her first impressions.