Baby of the House

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The Baby of the House is the unofficial moniker given to the youngest member of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. There are no specific duties associated with the honour.

Becoming the Baby of the House is regarded as something of an achievement, and for example, Jeffrey Archer falsely claimed to have been the youngest MP at the time of his election. However, some MPs who have held the position for a considerable period — Matthew Taylor was the Baby of the House for over ten years — have found it somewhat embarrassing, as it may suggest that they have a lack of experience, although a perusal of the list shows that many babies in fact went on to enjoy long, significant and distinguished parliamentary careers. From August 1999 to September 2001, all three of the leaders of the main political parties had been the youngest MPs in the party when they began their political career (William Hague, Tony Blair, Charles Kennedy).

[edit] List of Babies of the House of Commons

Elected	Name	Constituency		Age
1895	William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam	Wakefield	Liberal Unionist	22
1898^b	Arthur Hill	West Down	Conservative	24
1900	Richard Rigg	Appleby	Liberal	23
1904^b	Edward Turnour	Horsham	Conservative	21
1906	John Wodehouse	Mid Norfolk	Liberal	22
1910	Charles Thomas Mills	Uxbridge	Conservative	22
1912^b	Philip Sassoon	Hythe	Conservative	23
1915^b	John Esmonde	North Tipperary	Irish Parliamentary	21
1916^b	Patrick Whitty	North Louth	Irish Parliamentary	21
1917^b	Edward Stanley	Liverpool Abercromby	Conservative	22
1918¹	Joseph Aloysius Sweeney	West Donegal	Sinn Féin	21
1919^b	Esmond Harmsworth	Isle of Thanet	Coalition Conservative	21
1922	Henry Arthur Evans	Leicester East	National Liberal	24
1923	Charles Arthur Uryan Rhys	Romford	Conservative	24
1924	Hugh Lucas-Tooth	Isle of Ely	Conservative	21
1929	Frank Owen	Hereford	Liberal	23
1931	John Roland Robinson	Widnes	Conservative	23
1933^b	Lord Willoughby de Eresby	Rutland and Stamford	Conservative	25
1935^b	Charles Taylor	Eastbourne	Conservative	24
1935	Malcolm Macmillan	Western Isles	Labour	22
1940^b	John Profumo	Kettering	Conservative	25
1941^b	George Charles Grey	Berwick-upon-Tweed	Liberal	22
1944²	John Profumo	Kettering	Conservative	29
1945^b	Ernest Millington	Chelmsford	Common Wealth	29
1945	Hon. Edward Carson	Isle of Thanet	Conservative	25
1948^b	Roy Jenkins	Southwark Central	Labour	27
1950	Peter Baker	South Norfolk	Conservative	28
1950^b	Thomas Teevan	Belfast West	Ulster Unionist	23
1951³	Tony Benn	Bristol South East	Labour	26
1954^b	John Eden	Bournemouth West	Conservative	28
1955⁴	Philip Clarke	Fermanagh and South Tyrone	Sinn Féin	21
1955⁴	Peter Kirk	Gravesend	Conservative	27
1957^b	Robert Cooke	Bristol West	Conservative	26
1958^b	Patrick Wolrige-Gordon	Aberdeenshire East	Conservative	23
1959^b	Paul Channon	Southend West	Conservative	23
1964	Teddy Taylor	Glasgow Cathcart	Conservative	27
1965^b	David Steel	Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles	Liberal	26
1966	John Ryan	Uxbridge	Labour	25
1967^b	Leslie Huckfield	Nuneaton	Labour	24
1969^b	Bernadette Devlin	Mid Ulster	Unity	21
1974	Dafydd Elis-Thomas	Merioneth	Plaid Cymru	27
1974	Hélène Hayman	Welwyn and Hatfield	Labour	25
1979^b	David Alton	Liverpool Edge Hill	Liberal	28
1979	Stephen Dorrell	Loughborough	Conservative	27
1981⁵^b	Bobby Sands	Fermanagh and South Tyrone	Anti H-Block	27
1981²	Stephen Dorrell	Loughborough	Conservative	29
1981⁵^b	Owen Carron	Fermanagh and South Tyrone	Anti H-Block	28
1983	Charles Kennedy	Ross, Cromarty and Skye	Social Democrat	23
1987^b	Matthew Taylor	Truro	Liberal	24
1997⁶	Christopher Leslie	Shipley	Labour	24
2000^b	David Lammy	Tottenham	Labour	27
2003^b	Sarah Teather	Brent East	Liberal Democrats	29
2005	Jo Swinson	East Dunbartonshire	Liberal Democrats	25

^b by-election.

¹ Joseph Aloysius Sweeney did not take his seat; the youngest MP actually sitting in the House of Commons was Oswald Mosley (Conservative, aged 22)

² Became the youngest MP for a second time, on the death of the previous youngest MP.

³ Tony Benn was first elected at the Bristol South East by-election, 1950, aged 25, but only became the youngest MP from the 1951 general election, on the defeat of Teevan.

⁴ Elected on an abstentionist ticket, Philip Clarke did not take his seat. Peter Kirk was first elected at the 1955 general election, when he became the youngest MP to take his seat, but only became the youngest MP with the disqualification of Philip Clarke later in the year.

⁵ Elected on an abstentionist ticket, Bobby Sands and Owen Carron did not take their seats; Stephen Dorrell remained the youngest MP actually sitting in the House of Commons.

⁶ Although several sources claim Claire Ward was the youngest MP during this period, she was 50 days older than Christopher Leslie.