In the General Election of July 2024 there were 6 Quaker MPs elected to Parliament, 4 from the Labour Party, 1 from the Green Party and 1 Liberal Democrat. Ruth Cadbury and Catherine West were already MPs, but the other 4 were elected for the first time. This is quite a good number by historical standards since in the whole of Quaker history there have been only 81 MPs elected in all (though it should be pointed out that Quakers were not permitted to be MPs until 1832). Most Quaker MPs have been Liberal or Labour but there have been several Conservatives (all of a liberal hue) and now there is a Green. The six Quaker MPs elected in 2024 were:
Steffan Aquarone – Liberal Democrat (North Norfolk); Ruth Cadbury – Labour (Brentford & Isleworth); Carla Denyer – Green (Bristol Central); Josh Fenton-Glynn – Labour (Calder Valley); Catherine West – Labour (Hornsey & Friern Barnet); Yuan Yang – Labour (Earley & Woodley).
Steffan Aquarone is the Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk. He was born in Blickling, Norfolk, and took a degree in Politics and International Relations at Warwick University in 2006. Before being elected MP in 2024 he was leader of the Liberal Democrats on Norfolk County Council. Steffan has also been active as an entrepreneur in film-making. His projects, often financed by crowd-sourcing, involved large groups of people with a common interest, a notable example of which was the film Tortoise in Love, made by a village in Oxfordshire.
Carla Denyer is the Green Party MP for Bristol Central. She was brought up in Fleet, Hampshire, and at school she was already campaigning against the Iraq War. In 2005-09 she studied mechanical engineering at St Chad’s College, Durham, and then worked for a renewable energy consultant in Bristol. She helped Quakers divest from fossil fuels and persuaded Bristol Council to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’. She was the first ever Quaker MP to be also a party leader (co-leader of the Green Party).
Josh Fenton-Glynn is Labour MP for Calder Valley, once a historic centre of the labour movement. He attended Calder High School and then took a degree at Liverpool University. A trade unionist and charity worker, he worked for Oxfam, Child Poverty Action Group, the Public and Commercial Services Union, USDAW, Church Action on Poverty, and the General Medical Council, before becoming an MP.
Yuan Yang is Labour MP for the new constituency of Earley and Woodley. She was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, but then attended Bradford Grammar School before taking a degree in PPE at Balliol College, Oxford. In 2012-13 she studied economics at LSE before studying at Beijing University in 2013 and becoming economics correspondent in China for the Financial Times. In 2024 she became the UK’s first MP born in mainland China.
Ruth Cadbury (Labour)
Ruth Cadbury is MP for Brentford and Isleworth, having been an MP since 2015. She had previously been an elected councillor in Hounslow for 25 years, where she was well known for campaigning for the living wage for all employees. She served as Shadow Housing Minister from 2016 – 2017 and has been particularly outspoken in campaigns against the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
In her ‘maiden speech’ to parliament she spoke of the Quaker values of the Cadbury family, and the expectation that working people should receive good pay, good training, decent housing and adequate welfare support and job security. She gave the Salter Lecture for the Quaker Socialist Society at Yearly Meeting in 2022.
Catherine West (Labour)
Catherine West is MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, having been elected to that role in May 2015. Amongst many causes, she has been a prominent spokesperson in campaigns for nuclear disarmament, for the better treatment of asylum seekers and against Brexit. She was an elected member of Islington Council from 2002 to 2014 and leader there from 2010 to 2013. While leader she established the country’s first Fairness Commission, chaired by Professor Richard Wilkinson, co-author of The Spirit Level.
Catherine West became a Quaker in the 1990s. She gave the Swarthmore Lecture in 2017 and the Salter Lecture in 2019. She is one of only two Quakers to have given both a Swarthmore Lecture and a Salter Lecture (the other being Jonathan Dale of Manchester).
As well as many Quakers serving as MPs at Westminster, in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, there have also been 2 Quakers MPs who served in the European Parliament as MEPs.
Jude Kirton Darling MEP (Labour)
Jude Kirton-Darling was an MEP for the North East of England. She has especially focussed on trade during that time, as a member of the international trade committee. She worked previously for the Quaker Council for European Affairs, then the European Trade Union Confederation.
She gave the Quaker Socialist Society Salter Lecture in 2015.
Molly Scott Cato MEP (Green)
Molly Scott Cato was an MEP for the South West of England. Amongst the causes she championed was urgent action on climate change and demilitarisation and peace in the Middle East. Previously a university teacher she has published widely on green economics.
She gave the Quaker Socialist Society Salter Lecture in 2017.
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Quaker MPs in History
First Quaker MP elected to the House of Commons was John Archdale (1698).
First Quaker MP actually to take his seat was Joseph Pease (1832).
Second Quaker MP in Parliament was John Bright (1843).
First Quaker MP in the Cabinet was John Bright (1869).
Were 9 Quaker MPs elected in 1906 (all Liberals).
Were 9 Quaker MPs elected in 1945 (mostly Labour).
Was only 1 Quaker MP elected In 1997 (A Conservative, Richard Body).
Were 3 Quaker MPs elected in 2015 (2 Labour and 1 Conservative, all women).
Were 2 Quaker MPs elected in 2017 and 2019 (both Labour, both women).
Were 6 Quaker MPs elected in 2024.
Note: There was a woman MP, Ann Limb, appointed to the House of Lords in 2026 and she may be the first Quaker woman to serve in the Lords. Friends House Library is researching this point. The whole question of Quakers in the House of Lords is rather obscure because originally Quakers rejected all titles, especially hereditary ones, and it is only recently that members of the Lords appointed to some extent on merit have even existed.
Amongst the most celebrated Quaker MPs are Joseph Sturge, who campaigned successfully against slavery; John Bright, who campaigned unsuccessfully to stop the Crimean War; Alfred Salter, the pioneering doctor, after whom the Salter Lectures were named; and Philip Noel-Baker, who won the Nobel Prize for Peace (1959). The first two called themselves Liberals and the last two called themselves Socialists.
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