Hannah Bardell - SNP MP

Hannah is the MP for the Livingston Constituency; SNP Spokesperson for Consular Affairs and International Engagement; and the Founder and Chair of the APPG on Deaths Abroad, Consular Service and Assistance. A Stirling University graduate, Hannah began her career in commercial television before working with the SNP, producing, and presenting SNPtv online. She worked for the US State Department in the Edinburgh Consulate and then spent three years in the oil & gas sector in Aberdeen. Hannah was elected in the 2015 UK general election, again in 2017 and in the 2019 snap election.

Lord Bird MBE - Crossbench Peer

John was born into poverty and brought up in care. His life journey has included spells as a prisoner, artist, and printer. Now an activist, publisher and Crossbench member of the House of Lords, Lord Bird is the driving force behind The Big Issue Group, which includes the world's most successful street magazine, The Big Issue, and its social investment arm, Big Issue Invest. Lord Bird is a business leader with an outstanding record of using enterprise as a force for social change in dismantling the root causes of poverty; and in Parliament, he focuses on poverty and homelessness prevention, literacy and protecting the rights of future generations.

Rt Hon Karen Bradley - Conservative MP

Since being elected for her home seat of Staffordshire Moorlands in 2010, Karen has been honoured to have served as a Minister in the Government Whips office, a Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury (a senior Whip), the Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime in the Home Office, where she brought in the Serious Crime Act and just before Parliament was dissolved in March 2015, she secured the passing of the Modern Slavery Act. After being re-elected in 2015, she became Minister for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime at the Home Office followed by Secretary of State for Digital, Culture Media and Sport and then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland until July 2019. In February 2020 Karen was proud to be elected Chair of the House of Commons Procedure Committee. She is also Co-Chair of the APPG on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery and Chair of the APPG on Challenger Banks and Building Societies. Karen is a member of The House’s advisory board.

Sir Graham Brady - Conservative MP

Graham has been the MP for Altrincham and Sale West since 1997 and the Chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs since 2010. He is Chairman of The House’s advisory board. Graham is well known to be independent minded and a champion of state grammar schools, having resigned from the front bench in 2007 to campaign in support of selective education. He was awarded ‘Backbencher of the Year’ by The Spectator in 2010. Graham has previously served as a shadow minister, holding the schools, employment, as well as the Europe brief. Graham also served on the Education and Employment Select Committee from 1997-2001 and the Treasury Select Committee from 2007-2010. Prior to his election in 1997, Graham was Public Affairs Director of the Waterfront Partnership. He had previously worked at the Centre for Policy Studies and Shandwick Plc. Graham studied law at Durham University.

Marsha de Cordova - Labour MP

Marsha has served as the MP for Battersea since 2017 and was previously a Labour Party councillor in Lambeth, London. Marsha was previously the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities and before that served as the Shadow Minister for Disabled People between 2017 – 2020. Here, she led on Labour's policy on disabled people and held the government to account on the impact of social security cuts and reducing the disability employment gap. She has a proud history of working in the voluntary sector for over 10 years before becoming an MP. Marsha was born with nystagmus and is registered blind. She has dedicated much of her life to campaigning for disability rights and is passionate about equality for all.

Dame Meg Hillier – MP

Meg is Member of Parliament for Hackney South and Shoreditch. Elected as an MP in 2005, Meg was a junior government minister from 2007-10. She was elected Chair of the Public Accounts Committee in 2015. She is also Chair of the Commonwealth Association of Public Accounts Committees. Prior to her election to Parliament Meg was a journalist. She was an elected London borough councillor for eight years and was a member of the newly created London Assembly from 2000 to 2004.

Baroness Hussein-Ece OBE - Liberal Democrat Peer

Meral was appointed a life peer to the House of Lords on the Liberal Democrat benches in 2010, after a long career in local government, the NHS, and the voluntary sector. She served as a local councillor in the London Boroughs of Hackney and Islington for a total of 16 years and established the first centre for domestic violence victims for Turkish and Kurdish women in London. She has campaigned against violence against women in the BAME communities, and race equality, for many years. Meral served as a Commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission and is Equalities Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat’s Lords Group. Meral is currently a member of the House of Lords Conduct Committee.

Thangam Debbonaire - Labour MP

Thangam has lived in Bristol for more than 30 years. She is Member of Parliament for Bristol West and since May 2021 has been Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. In this role she is responsible for scrutinising the government’s parliamentary agenda and ensuring the effective running of parliament. Thangam was previously Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Shadow Brexit Minister and a Labour whip. Since Thangam was first elected in 2015, she has championed a wide range of issues, including refugee rights, cancer treatment for young people and support for the creative industries.

Amy Leversidge - FDA

Amy is the Assistant General Secretary at the FDA union, the union for leaders and managers in the civil service and public service, including the House of Commons. Amy is responsible for the union’s organising, learning and communications functions, in addition to managing half the National Officer team, including the FDA’s Officers in the devolved nations. Amy led on the union’s campaign in the House of Commons to get a fully independent policy to deal with bullying, harassment and sexual harassment complaints and she has written articles for The House magazine, the Times, the Guardian, and the Huffington Post about the issues. Previously Amy worked at the Royal College of Midwives and organised the first ever industrial action undertaken by midwives in the 134-year history of the union. Amy has an MSc in Employment Relations from Warwick University.

Rosa Prince - The House magazine

Rosa has been Editor of The House magazine since February 2021. She was in the Lobby for 10 years for the Daily Mirror and The Telegraph and was a member of the team that broke the 2009 expenses scandal before becoming US Correspondent. As a freelance commentator and writer on UK and US politics, her bylines have appeared in publications around the world including the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Times, Daily Mail, Grazia UK, Politico EU and CNN.com. She is also a frequent broadcast pundit, podcast guest and public speaker. Rosa is the author of biographies of Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May and of two collections of interviews with MPs as they prepared to retire, Standing Down and Standing Down 2017, and is also a ghostwriter of political books.

Michael Salter-Church MBE - Openreach

Michael is the Director of External Affairs, CSR & Policy for Openreach, the UK’s largest digital infrastructure company. He has a background in communications and public affairs, having spent most of his career in Westminster. He served as a special advisor in No10 to David Cameron, leading on broadcasting and equal marriage legislation. He has worked in banking and retail, heading up Public Affairs for Sainsbury’s during its acquisition of Argos. In 2012, Michael founded, and still co-chairs, LGBT+ Pride in London, the Community Interest Company that organises London’s Pride events. He is a member of the organising committee for the Ultimate News Quiz, the leading annual fundraising event for two charities, Action for Children and Restless Development, and serves as an advisor to National Student Pride. In 2019 he was elected to the governing Council of the National Trust. Michael was awarded an MBE in 2015 for public service and in 2019 accepted the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service on behalf of Pride in London.

Dr Hannah White OBE - Institute for Government

Hannah has strategic oversight of the Institute’s programme of work on government, Parliament, and the civil service, focusing on our external relationships and impact. Hannah has extensive knowledge of Westminster and Whitehall based on over a decade of experience in Parliament and the civil service. Before running the Committee on Standards in Public Life in the Cabinet Office, she was a clerk in the House of Commons managing select and legislative committees and advising on parliamentary procedure. Hannah is a commentator for radio and television and has appeared on Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, World at One, the Today programme, Newsnight, BBC News and Sky News. She is a regular contributor to the Institute’s comment pages and writes for a range of media including The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and Civil Service World. Hannah joined the Institute for Government in May 2014 and leads the Institute’s work on Parliament.

Rt Hon the Lord McFall of Alcluith

Judge of The Lord Speaker's Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Lords

John Francis McFall was elected as Lord Speaker of the House of Lords in 2021. Before entering the Lords in 2010, McFall was a Labour MP between 1987 and 2010, first for Dumbarton and later for West Dumbartonshire. During his time as an MP, he served as a Minister in the Northern Ireland Office and as a Government Whip. He also chaired the Treasury Select Committee between 2001 and 2010. He has been named a Which? As a Consumer Champion for his efforts to improve financial services for consumers and maintains a keen interest in consumer rights and good governance. As Lord Speaker, Lord McFall oversees proceedings in the chamber, chairs the House of Lords Commission and promotes the work of the House in the UK and abroad. Before his political career, he was a teacher and deputy Headteacher for 23 years in the West of Scotland.

Rt Hon Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP

Judge of The Speaker's Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Commons

Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s world has always revolved around politics. As a babe in arms in 1957, he attended his first Labour Party conference with his father, Doug, now Lord Hoyle, then an aspiring MP. From the age of seven, he was a regular on the campaign trail, delivering leaflets to help his father’s first attempt to stand in Clitheroe. When Doug Hoyle finally secured the Nelson and Colne constituency in 1974, it was no surprise Lindsay’s political career was set. He became the youngest ever councillor to serve Chorley when elected in 1980 at the age of 22. He went on to become Deputy Leader of Chorley Council, and then Mayor of Chorley in 1997-1998. Having his appetite wetted by local politics, Lindsay stood and won the Chorley seat in. In Parliament, Lindsay has served on the Trade & Industry Select Committee and the European Scrutiny Committee, and in 2010, he was elected by fellow MPs to the position of Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Ways and Means. But on a pledge to keep MPs, staff, and their families safe, to be an impartial chair and improve the image of Parliament, Lindsay was elected as Speaker on 4 November 2019, following the resignation of Speaker John Bercow.