People who want to be MPs really want to be MPs. They are willing to try and try again: in the footnotes of the careers of many now-prominent politicians, one finds unsuccessful first tilts at parliament. Often, they spend years in pursuit of elected office; Liz Truss was at it for a decade before securing in 2010 the South West Norfolk seat she just lost. Years after defeat, many candidates can’t stop themselves from returning to the fray.
As this new parliament has been gradually sworn in, there’s been plenty of attention paid to the former MPs (Douglas Alexander, Emma Reynolds and Heidi Alexander, to name a few) returning to the Commons. But what about the almost-MPs of the past who have now made it too? In 2015 a whole raft of people with big profiles in the Labour Party, who were going to be the future, failed to make it to parliament. Losing in 2015 wasn’t like losing a snap election; it was months, in most cases years, of candidates’ lives. Some stood again in 2017 and won, but many of them sat out the Corbyn years, only returning to seek selection under Starmer. These people are now entering parliament for the first time. How will this class of 2015 come to influence the Starmer government?
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