Backgrounds of UK MPs

The Smith Institute has done a profile of the 650 MPs just elected to Westminster.  Some interesting facts:

• 25% of the MPs are new
• The average ages are SNP 44, Conservatives 50, Lib Dems 51 and Labour 53
• 29% of MPs are female, up from 22% last time
• 33% of MPs went to a private school and 23% went to Oxford or Cambridge
• Only 22% of MPs have a business background
• 7% of Conservative MPs were in the Armed Force (0% for all other parties)
• 15% of Labour MPs were professional unionists
• 25% of MPs main background is in politics (29% of Labour MPs, 19% of Conservative MPs and 35% of SNP MPs)

The last one is the most disturbing. It isn’t a bad thing to have a few MPs whose main background has been in politics, but you don’t want a quarter of Parliament made up of professional politicians who have never held a job outside politics.