Jeremy Corbyn’s unexpected surge in the polls has certainly shaken up the national picture, but it has also changed the face of the House of Commons in ways we didn’t expect.  There are a number of firsts.

It is the most diverse House of Commons ever with a rise in the number of women, LGBT and ethnic minority MPs elected.  Women now make up 32% of the Commons (Labour has the most female MPs with 119, the Conservatives second with 67).  There are 45 LGBT MPs, a 40% increase on 2015.  There are 52 ethnic minority MPs, up from 41 in the last Parliament.

There has also been an increase in MPs who went to state school: 51% attended a comprehensive, compared to 29% educated privately. There has been a boost for disabled representation and we have our first female Sikh MP in Preet Gill (Labour).

These factors won’t have a direct bearing on our industry’s fortunes necessarily, but they do provide important context for the tone of debate in Parliament across all issues.

So what about the new members? Who catches the eye? And who do we expect to be influential on financial services and consumer credit?

The starting point for credit businesses is always the Treasury Select Committee, and there are some interesting changes here.  First and foremost, there is a vacancy in the chairman’s seat following the standing down of the respected previous chairman, Andrew Tyrie.

Candidates for the chairs of all the select committees are busy lobbying their fellow MPs (the Commons Tea Room last week resembling a boisterous trading floor).  Jacob Rees-Mogg MP is making a strong bid for the Treasury Committee chair and is widely fancied for it. Rees-Mogg has sat on the committee since 2015 and built a reputation as a ferocious interrogator.  Fellow committee member, Steve Baker MP, had also been expected to bid for the chairmanship but has since been appointed Brexit minister, which leaves Rees-Mogg and possibly fellow Tory, Chris Philp MP, as frontrunners (tradition dictates the chair comes from the party in government).

Other prominent ‘returners’ include Julian Knight, Conservative MP for Solihull and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Alternative Lending, in which CCTA plays a prominent role.  Julian has proved receptive to concerns over access to the marketplace for consumers and businesses alike and will no doubt continue to push for diversity and choice in the consumer’s interest.

Making the countering arguments will be the Labour MP for Makerfield, Yvonne Fovargue, chairman of the Parliamentary Group on Debt and, before entering Parliament, Chief Executive of St Helens Citizens Advice Bureau for over 20 years.  Fovargue has been a consistent and effective critic of the industry and will remain so.

Other names to watch on the Labour benches are Rachel Reeves MP, a former Bank of England economist and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Ed Miliband, and Wes Streeting MP, a returning member of the Treasury Select Committee.  Reeves campaigned strongly for price caps on overdrafts in the dying days of the last Parliament and will no doubt return to the cause during this one.

Returning for the Tory back-benches from Government roles are Justin Tomlinson MP and Andrew Percy MP.  Both Tomlinson and Percy were engaged on credit issues before their elevation to Government; both would be expected to re-engage from the back-benches.

There are some interesting names among the new faces too (some of them not so new).

Vince Cable MP makes a return for the Lib Dems in Twickenham but steps immediately into a leadership battle along with Jo Swinson MP, who also returns to Parliament following defeat in 2015.  Both were highly influential on financial services regulation during the Coalition Government.

New to the Conservative benches are Alex Burghart MP and Vicky Ford MP.  Burghart is a former special adviser in No. 10 and policy expert at the Centre for Social Justice think tank, which has been influential on credit and debt in recent years.  Vicky Ford is a former MEP and chair of the European Parliament’s influential Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee from 2014-17, which had oversight of all European consumer credit law-making.

Also new for the Tories is Lee Rowley MP, a former employee of Santander Bank with links to the Centre for Social Justice.

We can expect to hear a lot from these individuals in the months and years to come.  CCTA will be engaging them on your behalf and impressing upon them the importance of diversity in the marketplace and a level-playing field with the big banks and finance houses.  We will keep you up-to-date on our forays into Parliament on your behalf.