Class of 2024: the UK's next generation of MPs

Of the 650 MPs in the House of Commons, 135 have announced they will not be standing at the election on 4 July – so a new generation of politicians is about to take office. 

Among the famous faces departing are 22 current and former secretaries of state. Most notable are former prime minister Theresa May, former deputy PM Dominic Raab and current levelling-up secretary Michael Gove among the Tories, while former Labour ministers Harriet Harman and Margaret Hodge are also not seeking re-election. They are joined by Ian Blackford, the former Westminster leader of the SNP, two current deputy speakers, Rosie Winterton and Eleanor Laing, and the chairs of 10 select committees.

By far the highest number of MPs standing down are from the Conservative Party, with 78 heading for pastures new. While MPs retire for all sorts of reasons, "the thought that their party could be heading for another historic drubbing and a long spell in opposition is sure to be playing on Tory minds", said the BBC.

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So who are the next generation of MPs that will shape the future of British politics? The Week takes a look at four of the brightest prospects.

Darren Jones

Keir Starmer's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury emerged as a rising star thanks to his role as chairman of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee. It was on TikTok primarily where footage of "his pithy and often brutal grillings of evasive ministers and hapless executives" went viral, said Jane Merrick on the i news site. 

Jones was elected to the Commons in 2017, when Jeremy Corbyn eliminated Theresa May’s majority, but "he is no Corbynista", said The Guardian. It was the policies of Tony Blair's 1997 Labour government that transformed his life, he told the paper. "It should be, in my view, at the heart of our plan to transform the country, and at the heart of our political vision – but you would have to anchor it in people's concerns and experiences," he said. 

Now destined for a prominent role in a future Starmer cabinet, Jones has the opportunity to practise what he preached.

Katie Lam

A former adviser to Boris Johnson and Suella Braverman, Lam's selection for "what is expected to be a safe constituency the Tories should win" in Weald of Kent, said the Kent Messenger, underlines her future prospects. 

Lam was deputy chief of staff to Johnson in No. 10 and a vice-president at Goldman Sachs. Following in some illustrious footsteps she was also president of the Cambridge Union but is perhaps most well-known as an "award-winning lyricist behind Broadway and West End shows", said the Messenger. Lam penned the lyrics to a musical adaptation of "The Railway Children", so perhaps a role at the Department for Transport could be appropriate should Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives pull off an unlikely victory.

Carla Denyer

After 14 years, Caroline Lucas, the Green party’s sole MP, will stand down at the next election but ready to take her place in the party's somewhat limited limelight is Denyer. 

Looking to win the Labour seat of Bristol Central, Denyer served as a local councillor from 2015 to 2024. She was named by the Women's Engineering Society as one of the UK's top 50 women in engineering due to her work on the climate emergency motion and also featured in Bristol Live's Pink List of the most influential LGBT+ people in Bristol. 

"Obviously, I'm not going to have the keys to Number 10," Denyer told Politico. "But as we've already seen with Caroline Lucas in Westminster, having a Green in the room has allowed her to ask questions, put forward motions, put things on the agenda that were simply not on the agenda before," she said. "That's what Greens can do." 

Zarah Sultana

The Labour MP for Coventry South is the youngest Muslim MP ever elected in this country and carries the twin distinction of being the most followed British politician on TikTok and also the most abused online. She told Elle: "I'm a woman, I'm young, I'm Muslim, I'm left wing. When people attack me, it's usually for one – or all – of those reasons." 

Since her election in 2019, Sultana has been praised for delivering "speeches on issues that matter to her", said the London Evening Standard. These include "ending child hunger, stopping gas licences in favour of a Green New Deal, free healthcare, and providing better pay to rail workers to end strikes". Sultana's left-wing credentials could be just the ticket for Starmer to prove Labour is a broad church when it comes to choosing a potential cabinet.