The UK Parliament has two Houses that work on behalf of UK citizens to check and challenge the work of Government, make and shape effective laws, and debate/make decisions on the big issues of the day ...

The constitutional dispute between the Irish and British parliaments continued throughout the 18th century. Catholics, meanwhile, were disenfranchised in 1728. It was another fifty years before the ...

This note confirms the appointment of Bessie Le Cras as Counting Agent for Nancy Astor in the Plymouth Sutton by-election of November 1919. The printed text allows for the possibility of a woman MP, ...

Even mill-owners were beginning to speak up for improved conditions. A strong humanitarian campaign had grown outside Parliament, championed by the MPs Anthony Ashley-Cooper (later the 7th Earl of ...

The choice of a Speaker was, for centuries, a well-entrenched system falling to the govening power but during the twentieth century this process became increasingly outdated resulting in a new secret ...

In parallel with factories, mills and workshops, Victorian legislators also responded to concern about working conditions in coal mines, especially the employment of women and children. In 1842 a ...

You appear to have JavaScript disabled in your browser settings. You may find some parts of this website do not work properly without it enabled.

The problem of poverty caused growing public concern during the early 19th century. The existing system for looking after those unable to care for themselves - the old, sick, disabled, orphans and ...

The political impartiality of the Speaker is a key feature of the office, while the role's authority has developed over time alongside other procedural reforms. The political impartiality of the ...

In 1832, the government appointed a royal commission to investigate the workings of the Poor Law and make recommendations for improvement. The commissioners sent out questionnaires and visited over ...

From the late 18th century children formed a rising proportion of the population almost two out of five people by the mid-1820s. It was common for them to work to supplement family incomes. Orphans ...

The Liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill MP (1806-1873) was elected MP for the City of Westminster in 1865 on a platform including votes for women. Mill's thinking on women's rights was influenced by ...