Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

More women won seats in the U.K.’s House of Commons than ever before, and will account for a quarter of lawmakers in the new parliament.

Women took at least 182 seats in the 650-strong parliament, a preliminary tally of votes from the British general election shows. That’s up from 148 in 2010.

While Nicola Sturgeon didn’t stand for election, she led pro-independence nationalists to a landslide in Scotland at Labour’s expense. Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman temporarily takes over party leadership after Ed Miliband stepped down before a contest to succeed him.

“We need to have a parliament that reflects the British people, so it’s a positive to have more female representation in the House of Commons,” said Victoria Clarke, an economist at Investec Securities in London. “We’re moving in the right direction, step by step, election by election.”

The 2010 general election had already returned a higher number and proportion of women lawmakers than any previous general election. Women never made up more than 5 percent of the Commons before 1987. Still, women would need to win about 325 seats, or half the seats in parliament, for there to be equal representation.

Also among successes is Mhairi Black, a 20-year-old student who beat Labour’s election campaign chief and foreign affairs spokesman Douglas Alexander, to become the youngest MP in parliament since 1667. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Defence Minister Anna Soubry also both won seats.