In his recent party conference speech, the Prime Minister announced plans for a national commission to explore options for electoral reform, including whether first-past-the-post is an effective elect...

In the third of our videos on parliamentary leadership Dr Emma Peplow discusses the career of Denis Healey, the Labour party leader that never was. The excerpts of Healey's voice are from the…

This election could serve as the earliest known record of a Black person voting in a British parliamentary election - John London

Robert Spankie, who was returned for Finsbury in 1832, had an unusual pre-parliamentary career. Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on our House of

Last week, the History of Parliament supported a workshop on the history of Westminster Hall.

This post from our assistant editor Dr Kathryn Rix was first published on the Parliamentary Archives: Inside the Act Room blog, which has many more articles to read on parliamentary history, from t…

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In this article Dr Kathryn Rix and Dr Martin Spychal of our House of Commons, 1832-1868 project discuss a pivotal vote in the early nineteenth-century Commons

Workshop taking place on September 17 2026.

Some historical examples of executive instability

Have you just heard that an MP has resigned by ‘taking the Chiltern Hundreds’? Our Senior Research Fellow, Dr Martin Spychal, explains the practice and

Sir Robert Peel, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834-35, 1841-46), entered Parliament at only 21 years of age. He went on to establish the

One of the most striking features of researching Victorian MPs is the extraordinary range of abilities and interests they often possessed beyond the Commons chamber. Previous blogs have highlighted…

‘A mix between arcane procedure and schoolboy-ish behaviour’? Westminster as told to the History of Parliament’s Oral History Project

Dr Emma Peplow uses our oral history archive interviews to look back at a very different by-election, but one that also took place under full media spotlight: Christchurch 1993.

Just a few months before the Declaration of Independence, last minute efforts were made to reconcile Britain and the American colonies. Dr Robin Eagles shows

Interviews with Historians was a landmark series of interviews between prominent historians. This page introduces the collection and gives access to the interviews.

Dr Kathryn Rix of our House of Commons 1832-1945 project looks at the makeshift arrangements made for the prorogation in the aftermath of the devastating Westminster fire of October 1834.

This week it is the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (complete with gnomes), which got me thinking about the parliamentary history of flowers and gardening (alas, not gnomes, about which there does not seem to...

Ahead of Remembrance Day, and with 2025 marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War, Dr Kathryn Rix, Assistant Editor of our House of Commons,

BOOK YOUR PLACE The Festival will take place on Saturday 4 July 2026 at Nottingham Trent University (City Campus) and offers a full day of interactive workshops exploring the many ways of doing and us...

Ceremonial processions were a key feature of the state opening of Parliament in the early modern period, just as they are today, but with some differences...