How young is too young to be a MP?

Following the election of 25 year old Keir Mather MP for Selby & Ainsty, the Conservative Minister, Johnny Mercer, compared him to an ‘inbetweener’, claiming that Mather was too young to be a MP. Mercer argued that Mather, at 25, could not adequately represent his constituents who were faced with a cost of living crisis as his life experience was so limited.

Mather will become the ‘Baby of the House’, the name given to the youngest member in the House of Commons. He is by no means the youngest MP ever however and as the chart below indicates, at 25 Mather is somewhat older that MPs such as Mhairi Black who was elected at the 2015 election at the age of just 20. Perhaps, a bad omen for Mather is that Black has recently announced that she will be standing down as an MP at the age of just 29, with reason being cited that she had missed out on much of her youth.

Is 25 too young to be an MP? Well it is certainly unusual. At the 2019 election, just 21 of the 650 MPs elected were between the ages of 18-29 with the most common ages to be a MP being between 40-59.

Whatever, your thoughts on a 25 year old MP it might have the more positive impact of bring some much needed representation to young people in the UK, a group which has been sorely under represented in the House of Commons.