After the 2024 election, the British parliament looks very different, with a large Labour majority for the first time in more than a decade. While we don’t yet have a full analysis of the socioeconomic background of the new crop of MPs, the Sutton Trust calculated that 23% were privately educated, a record low in almost 50 years of monitoring. Several cabinet ministers come from working-class backgrounds, including the prime minister, deputy prime minister and foreign secretary. What impact will the upbringing of this new parliament have on the way Britain is governed?
In the fourth part of Know Your Place: what happened to class in British politics, a podcast series from The Conversation Documentaries, we examine the link between representation and political change and ask will Britain’s new look parliament herald meaningful reform?
