Who are Britain's new MPs?

Two election candidates, gliding comfortably into safe seats.

The general election hasn’t happened yet, but we already know who’s going to be elected. Not everywhere, just in safe seats.

Here at Democracy Club, we collect information on candidates as part of our mission to improve access to election information. Who Can I Vote For? shows everything our volunteers have found out about your candidates — from election leaflets to company directorships. We’ve also written to every candidate with a published email address, asking them to share their CV.

Using this data, we can find out more about the new candidates in the very safest constituencies. This is where, barring disaster, the candidate for the sitting party will become the new MP.

So in less than a week, these new people will be making our laws. Many will stay in Parliament for decades. We think that means they’re pretty important. Yet with a few exceptions, right now, only a few people in local parties know much about these candidates.

Here are the ten eleven new candidates in the safest seats, all with a bulletproof majority of more than 10,000, and what we’ve been able to find out about them.

Often the information is sparse, but well, that’s the point: we think selection processes should be more transparent, and voters should have an informed and real choice. If you agree, please support Democracy Club’s work.

You’re the first to know: these are Britain’s new MPs.

1. Labour, Liverpool Walton (majority 27,777). Candidate: Dan Carden.
   The BBC reports that 30-year-old Dan Carden, a union aide, was selected by Labour’s National Executive Committee over protests from the local party. He hasn’t sent us a CV, and we don’t have any records of previous candidacies.
   
   
2. Conservative, Saffron Walden (majority 24,991). Candidate: Kemi Badenoch.
   ConservativeHome reports that Kemi Badenoch is a London Assembly member and former Coutts executive. She hasn’t sent us a CV, but we have a record of her standing in the London Assembly in 2016.
   
   
3. Conservative, Chichester (majority 24,413). Candidate: Gillian Keegan
   ConservativeHome reports that Gillian Keegan has a background in business, and sits on Chichester District Council. She has sent us her CV and was a candidate in another seat in 2015. We also know that she’ll be appearing in a hustings on Wednesday 7th June.
   
   
4. Labour, Manchester Gorton (majority 24,079). Candidate: Afzal Khan
   Afzal Khan has a Wikipedia page, which reports that he’s currently an MEP. We don’t have his CV, but Nesta’s biographical data says he studied law at university, and his previous job before politics was as a solicitor.
   
   
5. Conservative, Brentwood and Ongar (majority 21,810). Candidate: Alex Burghart.
   ConservativeHome reports that Alex Burghart is the lead adviser on social justice in the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit. We don’t have his CV, but we know he stood elsewhere in 2015.
   
   
6. Conservative, Hitchin and Harpenden (majority 20,055). Candidate: Bim Afolami.
   ConservativeHome reports that Bim Afolami is a former lawyer now at HSBC, and previously worked for George Osborne. We don’t have his CV. He stood elsewhere in 2015, and Nesta’s biographical data reports that he went to Eton and Oxford.
   
   
7. Conservative, Harborough (majority 19,632). Candidate: Neil O’Brien.
   ConservativeHome reports that Neil O’Brien is currently an advisor in Number 10 on industrial strategy, and from 2012-16 was a special advisor to George Osborne. He hasn’t supplied us with a CV, and we have no record of previous candidacies, but Nesta’s data shows that he studied PPE at Oxford.
   
   
8. Conservative, Chelmsford (majority 18,250). Candidate: Vicky Ford.
   Vicky Ford has a Wikipedia profile, which shows that she is currently an MEP, and before that at JP Morgan. We don’t have her CV, but have been able to find a LinkedIn profile (surprisingly rare among these candidates), which shows that she studied Maths & Economics at Cambridge.
   
   
9. Conservative, Tatton (majority 18,241). Candidate: Esther Louise McVey.
   We haven’t got Esther McVey’s CV, but she’s on Wikipedia, which shows that she was a minister from 2013-15 and lost her seat in 2015. She’s now replacing George Osborne in Tatton. Because she’s been an MP before, we’ve got her voting record on TheyWorkForYou.
   
   
10. Labour, Oxford East (majority 15,280). Candidate: Anneliese Dodds.
    We haven’t got Anneliese Dodds’s CV, but she’s on LinkedIn, which shows that she’s currently an MEP, and before that a public policy academic at the LSE. She studied PPE at Oxford.
    
    
11. Conservative, Aldershot (majority 14,901). Candidate: Leo Docherty.
    The Financial Times calls Aldershot “the highest-profile tussle over a [Conservative] candidate choice”, reporting that the party leadership rejected local requests to consider Eurosceptic Dan Hannan for the seat. We haven’t got Leo Docherty’s CV, but he’s on LinkedIn, which shows that he was at SOAS and Sandhurst, and then director of the Conservative Middle East Council.

More (likely) new MPs in seats with a majority above 10,000

12. Labour, Blaydon (majority 14,227). Candidate: Liz Twist.
13. Labour, Leigh (majority 14,096). Candidate: Jo Platt.
14. Conservative, Isle of Wight (majority 13,703). Candidate: Bob Seely.
15. Conservative, Hornchurch and Upminster (majority 13,074). Candidate: Julia Dockerill.
16. Labour, Lewisham West and Penge (majority 12,714). Candidate: Ellie Reeves.
17. Labour, Barnsley East (majority 12,034). Candidate: Stephanie Peacock.
18. Labour, Nottingham North (majority 11,860). Candidate: Alex Norris.
19. Sinn Fein, West Tyrone (majority 10,060). Candidate: Barry McElduff.
20. Labour, North West Durham (majority 10,056). Candidate: Laura Pidcock.