UK election: Sam Carling (22), the ‘Commons babe’

Sam Carling could eat with a spoon, climb stairs and speak in three-word sentences when Shailesh Vara was elected as the new MP for North West Cambridgeshire in 2005. Shailesh Vara, then 44, had been a member of the Conservative Party for more than 20 years and had a pretty good political career. He held a number of positions in three different departments of government and was MP for North West Cambridgeshire for 19 years. Until July this year, when he lost his first election. Against Sam Carling, who was born in 2002.

At just 22, Sam Carling looks like a high school class president and is now not only the youngest member of the new British Parliament, earning him the unofficial title of “Baby of the House”. He is also the second youngest member of Parliament in recent election history. Last week, Sam Carling arrived in Westminster with other new MPs. These days, the mood is like the first day of school: 335 new MPs are currently being sworn in in the House of Commons, a process that will take three days. Before everyone gets an office, many desks are temporarily set up in committee rooms.

At one point on his first day at work, Sam Carlin sat in a chair near the cafeteria, staring intently at his phone. He politely said that he might have time to talk at some point, but now, no, not now, unfortunately, “I’m sorry.” The first few days were too much to do, everything was new, and not just for him.

Getting to the front row soon?

New Prime Minister Keir Starmer Earlier, 412 MPs gathered in an ancient church near Parliament. In the group photo, Sam Carling is at the back of the centre, but if you believe those who have worked with him recently on Cambridge Council, he may be further away at some point.

Carling grew up in Bishop Auckland, a small town in northeast England. He told the BBC on election night that when he was young he had to watch shops close and “everything around me was getting worse and worse”. He got excellent grades at the private school Barnard Castle School and studied science at Cambridge University. Even as a schoolboy he had above average grades and from that point on his political interest began to grow. He became a member of the Cambridge University Labour Club and eventually became its vice-president. In 2022 he was elected to Cambridge City Council, representing the suburb of West Chesterton.

Even then, no one expected him to be elected: “I was told to prepare for defeat,” he writes on his website. But he did well in the campaign and won, and is now responsible for delivering a £17m annual budget for the community. The party then put him forward as its candidate for the constituency, but it seemed unlikely that he would stand a chance against the incumbent. After two counts – there is always a “recount” if the result is close – Sam Carling was ahead by 39 votes.

Yes, it was a “political earthquake”, he told the BBC afterwards. He thinks it would be great if more young MPs followed his path: “If young people feel better represented in Parliament, we will also fight apathy and disillusionment with politics,” he thinks. Otherwise, he hopes his age won’t continue to play a role. In the end, he’s just doing the same job as everyone else.

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