Are 'Keir's kids' the youngest-looking bunch of MPs

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As Sir Keir Starmer’s red wall of 411 MPs squeezed into the House of Commons today, none will be more energised than the fresh-faced team of Gen Z backbenchers who are taking up their seats this week.

Labour’s new government boasts Britain’s first MP to be born in the 21st Century – and plenty more who were born between 1995 and 2000.

Voters have hailed the youthful look of Sir Keir’s new team of backbenchers, but others have questioned whether they have enough ‘substance’.

Westminster’s new ‘Baby of the House’ is Sam Carling, the 22-year-old MP for North West Cambridgeshire who was born in 2002.

Mr Carling, who beat ex-minister Shailesh Vara, his 63-year-old opponent, by just 39 votes on Thursday, has defended his age – dismisses claims he doesn’t have ‘real world experience’.

‘As far as I’m concerned we’re just the same as anyone else. I just want to get on with the job,’ he told the BBC.

Westminster’s new ‘Baby of the House’ is Sam Carling (pictured), the 22-year-old MP for North West Cambridgeshire who was born in 2002

At 24, Euan Stainbank (left) was the youngest candidate to stand to be an MP in Scotland. Josh Dean (right), also 24, overturned a Tory majority of nearly 20,000 to win his Hertford and Stortford seat

Pictures show how many Labour MPs (highlighted in red) were seen spilling out around the speaker’s chair, along with members from Tories (blue) and Lib Dems (yellow)

The former private school pupil went to Cambridge University, where he was involved in student politics. He was also studying for a master’s degree in pathology while campaigning to be an MP.

Labour’s 22-year-old MP hits back at claims he doesn’t have enough ‘real world experience’

He may be the new ‘Baby of the House’ but there are a number of other young MPs in Westminster now.

Josh Dean, 24, overturned a Tory majority of nearly 20,000 to win his Hertford and Stortford seat.

He went to a comprehensive school in Hertford and is set to graduate with a politics and international relations degree from the University of Westminster.

Also aged 24, Euan Stainbank was the youngest candidate to stand to be an MP in Scotland. He incredibly tripled the number of Labour votes and overturned a 15,000 SNP majority.

Mr Stainbank is new to politics, having only become a councillor in Falkirk two years ago after graduation from the University of Stirling with a law degree.

The Herald reports that he was president of the Law Society and co-founded the Stirling Students Tenants Association, which supported international students with housing issues during Covid.

Then there is Keir Mather, the 26-year-old MP who was thrust into the spotlight when he overturned a 20,000 Tory majority to win the Selby and Ainsty byelection last July.

Keir Mather (pictured), the 26-year-old MP who was thrust into the spotlight when he overturned a 20,000 Tory majority to win the Selby and Ainsty byelection last July

The Labour party also has a new Swiftie in town – as 26-year-old Rosie Wrighting (pictured) overturned a Tory majority of nearly 17,000 when she won her Northamptonshire constituency

It made him the baby of the house and showed that the Tories were going to have to fight hard to avoid a Labour landslide. An Oxford graduate, he was named after Labour’s founder – Keir Hardie – like Starmer. He held onto his seat with a 10,000 majority on Thursday.

Cambridge graduate who only sat his GCSEs in 2018 becomes UK’s first MP born in the 21st century

The Labour party also has a new Swiftie in town – as 26-year-old Rosie Wrighting overturned a Tory majority of nearly 17,000 when she won her Northamptonshire constituency.

Seen as a battleground, Sir Keir – also a Swiftie – visited Northamptonshire several times on the election trail.

Before taking her seat in the Commons, she worked in retail and lives with her mum, The Guardian reports.

Last month, she told The Telegraph her go-to karaoke song was Taylor Swift’s I Can Do It With a Broken Heart. She is also said to be a keen figure skater.

Labour also have two 27-year-olds – one of whom is Jacob Collier who overturned a 15,000 Tory majority in Burton and Uttoxeter, which hasn’t voted Labour since the Blair and Brown ears.

The other is Nadia Whittome, who was actually first elected in 2019 when she became ‘Baby of the House’ as a 23-year-old.

Nadia Whittome (pictured) is aged 27. She was actually first elected in 2019 when she became ‘Baby of the House’ as a 23-year-old

The other Labour MPs below 30 include Lloyd Hatton for South Dorset and Luke Charters for York Outer, who are both 28.

The youthful look of the Labour party has prompted much discussion on social media.

The Red Parliament convenes: Commons returns after Starmer’s huge win – with 411 Labour MPs

One user posted: ‘I keep having to pinch myself when I see our TV screens filled with energetic, keen young Labour MPs elected by people who live all around me. What a contrast with the past.

‘May their energy and integrity never dim as we say goodbye to the past 14 years of chaos and darkness.’

And another wrote: ‘There are a LOT of quite young, quite energetic looking people posting about their 1st day in Parliament.

‘Important, when thinking about Labour defending its majority in 2029, to remember that many of these people will have established great local reputations by then.’

A third said: ‘So many people I had the pleasure of getting to know during difficult times in Young Labour back in the 2010’s are now MPs.’

And a fourth wrote: ‘Congratulations to all Labour MPs, especially the new wavering young competent MPs. You’ve not just won a landslide, you given us hope and a real future. It’s like the end of a 14 year storm and we are now in calm waters.’

Social media users are divided by the youthful look of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party

Others disapproved, however, with one writing: ‘Do seem to be a lot of young Labour MPs, absolutely no life experiences to help form government policy apart from ideological claptrap.’

Andy Mellor wrote on X: ‘Crikey is it just me or do all these new MPs look really young!?’

And X user Reg wrote: ‘Can’t help thinking how young many of these new MPs look. Maybe not 22 but they are quite young. I wonder if this is a deliberate policy by Labour HQ. I guess it plays to the insta / x side of things. I do hope there is more substance over show.’

Mr Carling, the new ‘Baby of the House’, has hit back at suggestions that age should be the focus.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, the Cambridge University researcher hit back at suggestions he was too inexperienced to be a lawmaker.

‘No one has yet been able to explain to me why being older makes you better at the job,’ he said.

Mr Carling has already sat on Cambridge City Council for the last two years and has insisted people in their 20s are just ‘as capable as anyone else’.

His parents were among the crowd as he gave his victory speech in the early hours of Friday morning, following a dramatic recount, and were there to drive him home when they left just after 6am.

Asked whether he can offer real-world experience when taking his seat in the Commons, Mr Carling told BBC Breakfast: ‘Well, I have a lot of experience that older MPs won’t.

‘I’ve been renting insecure housing in the private sector for quite a while now. That’s an issue facing not just young people, but people all across the age spectrum.

‘And it’s something that I intend to do a lot of work on now that I’m in Parliament.

‘I always get a little bit frustrated when people mention life experience because no one has yet been able to explain to me why being older makes you better at the job.’

He added: ‘I’ve done quite a lot for my age as well. I mean, I’ve been a councillor for a couple of years and a cabinet member responsible for about £17million of public money over the last year.

‘I’ve been a trustee of a university, and I’ve done a lot of other things that perhaps wouldn’t necessarily be typical for someone of my age.’

Originally from the North East of England, Mr Carling was a pupil at the £32,430-a-year Barnard Castle School in County Durham.

He says he bagged a staggering six A* grades in his A-Levels in 2020 – which is when schools were unable to sit summer exams due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The new Labour MP says he doesn’t ‘eat much meat at all…only chicken and fish’ and refuses to eat duck meat.

Speaking to student magazine Varsity, he said he only really tucks into chicken and fish, adding: ‘I used to go and feed ducks a lot when I was a kid so I will not eat duck. Ever.’

He is however a fan of the occasional meal deal, with two mains as his go to – a coronation chicken sandwich or a plant-based hoisin duck wrap.

But he says Fridge Raiders and a Dr Pepper are always a must for his choice of a snack and a drink.

He went on to study at natural sciences at the University of Cambridge after netting straight A*s in biology, chemistry, physics, maths, further maths and an extended project qualification, his LinkedIn says.

Describing himself as a ‘serial multitasker’, ambitious Mr Carling was forced to balance his studies with his fledging political career at university.

He joined Cambridge’s Labour Club rising to its co-chairman. He was also the Student Union President at Christ’s College.

In May 2022, he was voted on to Cambridge City Council representing West Chesterton for Labour.

His time at the council has seen him campaigning to tackle the ‘rancid filth’ and sewage blighting Cambridge’s River Cam. But his colleagues joke that all his work has to fit ‘around his paper round’.

He also held the post of Executive Councillor for Open Spaces and City Services – and once boasted of helping to approve a new Taco Bell fast-food outlet in the heart of Cambridge’s Market Square – close to his university halls.

But the busy 22-year-old has previously admitted he is ‘very bad at getting up’ in the morning and would regularly work until 3am, although this may also be down to his insomnia which means he gets around five hours sleep each day.

During his time studying for a degree, the aspiring politician also claimed to have uncovered an issue with Cambridge’s Student Union’s data collection systems which he said had inadvertently ‘outed countless’ LGBTQ students.

And the new Labour MP has also indicated his support for the pro-Palestine cause, telling Varsity in May the ‘fighting [in Gaza] needs to stop now’ – while also backing people’s ‘right to protest’, which saw hundreds of students set up camps outside the university calling for a ‘ceasefire’ in the war between Israel and Hamas.

When news broke in May that Mr Carling was to be Labour’s parliamentary candidate, the 22-year-old was ruthlessly trolled online over his age, with people calling him a ‘Labour creche kiddie’ and ‘nerd’, with some asking: ‘Have you ever had a job before?’

Sharing a series of pictures of the abuse he claimed to have received on X, Sam said: ‘I’m sometimes asked for my views on why we can’t get more young people to stand for office, with only 2 per cent of councillors under 30.

‘See below a selection of the age-related tripe I have received in just the first two days of being a parliamentary candidate. That should explain it.’

In 2015, Mhairi Black became the youngest MP to be appointed since 1832 when she was elected to the SNP aged just 20 years and seven months old.

Ms Black, the party’s former deputy leader at Westminster, announced last year she would be stepping down at the general election.