Post-election parliamentary schedule finalised

The key parliamentary dates have now been confirmed for sittings in the aftermath of the general election.

The new House of Commons will not meet for the first time until Tuesday May 18th. The first act of the new House, as is usual, will be the election of the Speaker, after which the swearing in of all MPs will begin.

MPs will continue to be sworn in over the following few days, and then on Tuesday May 25th the State Opening of Parliament will take place, with what we sincerely hope will be a Queen's Speech that has been written by David Cameron.

The longer-than-usual gap between the general election and the House meeting comes on the back of a recommendation from the Modernisation Select Committee in June 2007 that there should be more time to allow for the induction etc of new MPs - which will be an even bigger task than usual with a very large turnover of MPs expected at this election.

Jonathan Isaby