More women, more ethnic minorities, but one-third of MPs have still been privately-educated

Parliamentary privilege.

(Photo By 1/10 of our privately-educated MPs know the rules of the Eton wall game. Photo: Getty)

The next parliament will be more representative than the last one. There are now 188 female MPs, up nearly a third on the last parliament. There will also be more black and ethnic minority MPs, with 41 entering parliament, up from 27 in 2010.

But it’s not all good news. Research from the Sutton Trust shows the educational background of the Commons has hardly changed. Almost a third (32 per cent) of MPs in the new House of Commons have been privately educated, meaning that the new House is only a little more representative than that elected in 2010, when 35 per cent of MPs had been to a fee-paying school. I needn’t remind you that this compares with the 7 per cent of the population that is educated privately.