Inside first day at Westminster for UK's 335 new MPs where they got one unusual lesson

With the exception of when Rishi Sunak called the snap general election, it’s rare to experience such a buzz in Parliament like there is today.

650 MPs returning after a frantic six-week election campaign, having delivered thousands of leaflets and knocked on more doors than a double glazing salesman.

Now for the exciting part: actually becoming an MP - and 335 of them have never been an MP before.

While the first day at school for new arrivals is a pretty slick experience, it’s not been entirely smooth as many arrived only to find that Westminster tube station was flooded, requiring some to drag their suitcases from Waterloo station instead.

Upon arrival, they were ushered through security and into the ancient Westminster Hall - the oldest part of the estate built 900 years ago.

It’s played host to Parliament itself, kings, queens, presidents and other grand dignitaries over the years, as well as providing the venue for the trial of King Charles I, Guy Fawkes and William Wallace: a stark warning to any MPs hoping to be troublemakers.

After collecting their new green and white passes and lanyards - an innovation brought in in 2019 so doorkeepers stopped mistaking the increasingly young MPs with mere staffers - they followed the historic corridors around to Central Lobby, one of the most awe-inspiring parts of parliament filled with gilding, intricate tiling and a grand chandelier, before being directed towards the Commons chamber itself.

While the history of their new workplace will be the standout feature to any new MPs, there are also nods to the increasingly modern aspects of the job. A table, for example, advertising medical and mental health services in the increasingly abusive and threatening online and offline environments in which MPs are made to work.

Following the route around, MPs eventually found their way to the House of Commons terrace, a beautiful and highly social space with grand vistas of the Thames, parliament, the London Eye and St Thomas’s hospital.

Here I found two new Tory MPs being advised by their more experienced comrades on how to most effectively heckle their opponents in the chamber, though neither have yet experienced the ignominy of no longer sitting on the Government benches to the right of the Speaker.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle himself was seen bouncing around Portcullis House, welcoming the new flock of parliamentarians like a headmaster on open day.

While there still needs to be a mandatory vote, there’s little sign that the recent row over Palestine will hinder Sir Lindsay’s return to the top Commons job of speaker, and he was keen to get out there and shake hands with those he hopes will back him tomorrow.

Speaking to the Express, Sir Lindsay spoke about the key job he’s yet to get on top of - learning everyone’s names.

The already tricky job of matching 650 names with faces is compounded this year by the fact most constituencies were redrawn at the election and have new names.

He confessed that for the next few months at least, he will follow the trick of Betty Boothroyd by diplomatically calling most MPs to speak by referring to them as “the honourable member”.

The faces on Tory MPs were stark, not least because some defeated MPs - here to collect their belongings and say goodbye to staff - looked much happier than those unlucky enough to be returned and who now have to spend five years facing political irrelevance.

The enormous "welcome to Parliament sign" in Portcullis House also stood as a symbol of the increasingly welcoming and accessible atmosphere new MPs arrive to.

Speaking to The Times last week, former MP Andrew Percy revealed that after his inaugural election 14 years ago, he was “surprised at how ill-prepared everything was”.

“It was like they’d never had an election before. You appeared and were told ‘there’s no equipment, you don’t have an office and I can’t tell you when you will, but go and share that table with another MP’.”

Times are changing in Parliament, and the more than 200 new Labour MPs are merely one symbol of that.