British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and is now the dominant branch of Parliament. Parliament also includes the Sovereign and the upper house, the House of Lords. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members of Parliament" or "MPs." Members are elected by the first past the post system of election for limited terms, holding office until Parliament is dissolved (a maximum of five years). Each member is elected by, and represents, an electoral district known as a constituency. The House of Commons is the source of the vast majority of government ministers and, since 1963, every Prime Minister.

References

• Farnborough, T. E. May, 1st Baron. (1896). Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George the Third, 11th ed. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
• "Parliament" (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Pollard, Albert F. (1926). The Evolution of Parliament, 2nd ed. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
• Porritt, Edward, and Annie G. Porritt. (1903). The Unreformed House of Commons: Parliamentary Representation before 1832. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Raphael, D. D., Donald Limon, and W. R. McKay. (2004). Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice, 23rd ed. London: Butterworths Tolley.