While golden oldies battle for the presidency, the age of those in Westminster seems to be getting younger and younger. Last week, we had a new ‘Baby of the House’ when 25-year-old Keir Mather was elected as MP for Selby and Ainsty. And today, 29-year-old Charlotte Owen is being sworn in as the youngest life peer in British history. Who says the Tories have nothing to offer millenials?
The onetime No. 10 aide is to become Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge, having been awarded the gong in Boris Johnson’s honours list for her work as a parliamentary assistant and 18 months as a spad. Her appointment has been lauded by her former colleagues as, er, ‘staggering’ and ‘egregious’ while she herself was ‘just incredibly junior’ and ‘extraordinarily junior’. But Owen is not the only one being singled out for criticism.
Veterans’ Affairs Minister Johnny Mercer seemed particularly disgruntled by Mather’s election last week, saying that parliament ‘must not become a repeat of the Inbetweeners’. In the face of such determined youth-bashing from both sides of the political divide, Steerpike can only ask whether this a new trend in British politics, or has parliament always had a few young faces to balance out the wrinkles of the old?
In fact, the average age of Britain’s politicians has actually increased since 1979, rising to 51 years old in 2019, having previously stood at 49.6. The average age of members of the Lords…71. Maybe some youthful vigour will not go amiss, though Steerpike notes that a previous baby of the House was the SNP’s Mhairi Black. We all know how that went…
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