Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house.

United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom is divided into the House of Commons and the House of Lords; though it is often assumed that an MP is a member of Commons, they can be a member of either house. Nonetheless, the letters "MP" are appended as a post-nominal to an individual's name only if that person is a member of the House of Commons; that House currently has 646 members.

Related Topics:
Parliament - United Kingdom - House of Commons - House of Lords - Post-nominal - Currently

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MPs in the House of Commons are elected in general elections and by-elections to represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system of election, and remain MPs until Parliament is dissolved (parliaments can last up to five years). The members of the House of Lords are officially appointed by the Monarch, but the selection actually is done by the British Prime Minister.

Related Topics:
Elected - General elections - By-election - Constituencies - First-past-the-post - Monarch - Prime Minister

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There are several special members of Parliament, including the Prime Minister, other government ministers, the Chief Whip of each party, Privy Counsellors, and the Speaker of the House.

Related Topics:
Prime Minister - Chief Whip - Privy Counsellors - Speaker of the House

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Members of Parliament are technically forbidden to resign their seats. However, appointment to a "paid office under the Crown" disqualifies an MP from sitting in the Commons, and two nominally paid offices - the Chiltern Hundreds and the Manor of Northstead - exist to allow members to resign from the House. For more information, see the article Resignation from the British House of Commons.

Related Topics:
Chiltern Hundreds - Manor of Northstead - Resignation from the British House of Commons

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;See also: List of British MPs (alphabetically sorted, both former and current MPs), Lists of British MPs (by election), MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005, Number of British MPs (and how it has varied historically), UK topics

Related Topics:
List of British MPs - Lists of British MPs - MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005 - Number of British MPs - UK topics

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