By-election winning Lib Dems. Photo by Helen Duffett, on Flickr.
From the BBC:
The newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Mike Thornton has taken his seat in the House of Commons after winning the Eastleigh by-election.
He took his oath of allegiance to the Crown earlier.
New MPs are not allowed to speak in debates, vote, or get paid, until they have been sworn in.
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg welcomed Mr Thornton to Westminster as he arrived on Monday, congratulating him on “that superb victory”.
“All of us were out there campaigning for you and so all of us are now looking forward to you helping us back at this place,” Mr Clegg told him on the steps of the Palace of Westminster.
Watch the video from ITV News of Mike, flanked by a grinning Annette Brooke and Stephen Lloyd, arriving in the chamber to be sworn in. Behind Mike, Jeremy Browne and Jo Swinson are clearly delighted as he signs the Test Roll, a parchment book headed by the oath and affirmation which is kept by the Clerk of the House of Commons.
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4 Comments
Best of luck Mike and do your town, borough and constituency proud.
“He took his oath of allegiance to the Crown earlier.”
It’s about time this was changed. He’s been elected to represent his constituents, not Mrs Windsor.
The Crown is a symbol of the nation, in other words, another way of saying “the population”. It’s a cute piece of the strange psychology we call human and British. Put another way, he swore allegiance to us all. Mrs Windsor is just the present bearer of that symbol – which is why the allegiance is not to her but to the Crown!
Perhaps the fact that he’s flanked by Simon Hughes and Sarah Teather is an omen as to how he’ll vote on the Justice and Security Bill…