The House of Commons, domestically often referred to simply as the Commons, is the lower house and de facto primary chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state with devolution that is governed within the framework of a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Boris Johnson, is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the British government, on behalf of and by the consent of the monarch, and the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and the Northern Ireland Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The highest court is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
The House of Commons of Canada is the lower chamber of the bicameral Parliament of Canada, which also comprises the sovereign and the Senate of Canada. The House of Commons currently meets in a temporary Commons chamber in the West Block of the parliament buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while the Centre Block, which houses the traditional Commons chamber, undergoes a ten-year renovation.
Prime Minister's Questions is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom, currently held as a single session every Wednesday at noon when the House of Commons is sitting, during which the Prime Minister answers questions from Members of Parliament (MPs).
Harriet Ruth Harman is a British politician and solicitor who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham, formerly Peckham, since 1982. A member of the Labour Party, she has served in various Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet positions.
Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston is a British-German politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1997 to 2017. A former member of the Labour Party, she now sits as a non-affiliated member of the House of Lords.
Maria Eagle is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Garston and Halewood, previously Liverpool Garston, since 1997. She was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice and Government Equalities Office in Gordon Brown's government. She was previously a junior minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education and Skills and Northern Ireland Office.
Sir Bernard Christison Jenkin is a British Conservative politician serving as Chairman of the Liaison Committee and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich and North Essex since 2010. He was first elected to represent Colchester North in the 1992 general election, and went on to represent North Essex before the current Harwich and North Essex constituency was created.
Maria Frances Lewis Miller is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Basingstoke since 2005. She served as Minister for Disabled People from 2010 to 2012 and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2012 to 2014. She resigned from the Cabinet in April 2014 after she had over-claimed expenses. Miller also chaired the Women and Equalities Select Committee from 2015 to 2020.
Anne Frances Milton is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Guildford from 2005 to 2019. Formerly Minister for Women, she served as Minister of State for Skills and Apprenticeships from 2017 until her resignation in July 2019. First elected as a Conservative, Milton had the Conservative whip removed on 3 September 2019 and subsequently sat as an independent politician. On 5 November 2019 Milton announced she had declined an offer to appeal the removal of the Conservative whip and would stand for re-election in the December 2019 general election as an independent politician, in which she lost to the Conservative Angela Richardson.
Rushanara Ali is a British Labour Party politician and Associate Director of the Young Foundation, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bethnal Green and Bow since 2010.
Catherine McKinnell is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne North since 2010.
Michael Tyrone Ellis is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Solicitor General for England and Wales since 2019, and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Northampton North since 2010.
Brexit is the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) and the European Atomic Energy Community on 31 January 2020. The UK is to date the first and only country to formally leave the EU after 47 years of membership and cautious integration within the bloc after it first joined its predecessor, the European Communities (EC), on 1 January 1973. It is also thought to be the first country to voluntarily withdraw from an economic and monetary union of countries. Currently it continues to participate in the European Union Customs Union and European Single Market during a transition period that will end on 31 December 2020.
Scott Leslie Mann is a British Conservative politician and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Cornwall since 2015. He previously represented the Wadebridge West ward on Cornwall Council between 2009 and 2016.
John McNally is a Scottish National Party politician. At the 2015 general election he was elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Falkirk.
Maria Colette Caulfield is a Conservative Party politician and nurse. She was first elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewes in 2015. She was given the role of Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) Vice Chair for Women on 8 January 2018, until her resignation on 10 July 2018 in protest at the Brexit strategy of the Prime Minister, Theresa May. She is a supporter of the European Research Group and is a board member of Blue Collar Conservativism.
Amanda Anne Milling is a British politician serving as Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party alongside Ben Elliot and Minister without Portfolio since February 2020. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cannock Chase since the 2015 general election. Milling previously worked in market research.
On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom (UK) invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) which began the member state's withdrawal, commonly known as Brexit, from the European Union (EU). In compliance with the TEU, the UK gave formal notice to the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the EU to allow withdrawal negotiations to begin.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019, commonly informally referred to as the Benn Act after the MP Hilary Benn who introduced it, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that required the Prime Minister of the UK to seek an extension to the Brexit withdrawal date—then scheduled for 31 October 2019—in certain circumstances. The main provisions of the Act were triggered if the House of Commons did not give its consent to either a withdrawal agreement or leaving without a deal by 19 October 2019. The Act proposed a new withdrawal date of 31 January 2020, which the Prime Minister was obliged to accept if the proposal was accepted by the European Council.
