UK/Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
| UK/Member of Parliament link (Member of Parliament) | |
|---|---|
| Website | https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons |
Unrepresentative
In 2017 OpenDemocracy proved how unrepresentative the MPs were. The examples included[1]:
- In 2017, just 7% of children go to private school in the UK, but 48% of Conservative MPs, 17% of Labour MPs and 14% of Lib Dems MPs were privately educated. Less than 1% of the population study at Oxford or Cambridge universities[2], compared to 75% of all the UK’s prime ministers and 26% of MPs.[3]
- Only 2% of the adult UK population are landlords, while in 2016, 39% of Tory MPs, 26% of Scottish National party MPs and 22% of Labour MPs were landlords.[4]
- Going back to 1979, no less than 10% of MPs from the three main parties have been barristers or solicitors (while 0.22% of the UK population are solicitors)[5], and the percentage of MPs that had been publishers or journalists has never fallen below 6% (less than 1% of the population are journalists)[6]. Over the same period, the percentage of MPs who were manual workers – such as miners – has decreased steadily from 15.8% 35 years ago to just 4% in 2017.[7]
References
- ↑ https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/these-figures-show-how-out-of-touch-uk-politicians-are-from-everyone-else/
- ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/347915/Elitist_Britain_-_Final.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11136511
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jan/14/mp-landlords-number-risen-quarter-last-parliament-housing-bill
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/apr/04/solicitors-number-england-wales-ethnicity
- ↑ http://www.nctj.com/downloadlibrary/jaw_final_higher_2.pdf
- ↑ https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/07/24/public-want-more-mps-factory-fewer-courtroom/
