Record number of women MPs elected to the House of Commons

Labour MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy carries her baby daughter on election night (Picture: REUTERS)

A record number of women have been elected as MPs to the House of Commons following the General Election.

Some 220 women won seats in the 2019 poll – up from 208 in 2017.

The Labour Party and Liberal Democrats now have more female MPs than male.

Labour now has 104 women MPs, making up 51 per cent of the party's representatives. The party lost dozens of seats and now has only 203 MPs in Westminster.

Labour's candidate in Birmingham Yardley retained her seat (PA)

But women make up just 24 per cent of Conservative MPs. The party now has 87 female MPs, a 29 per cent increase since the 2017 snap election.

Men will still considerably outnumber women – with female MPs representing just 34 per cent of the Commons.

Gender breakdown of MPs in the next parliament:

Labour: 104 women, 98 men

Conservatives: 87 women, 277 men

Lib Dems: 7 women, 4 men

SNP: 16 women, 32 men

DUP: 1 woman, 7 men

Sinn Fein: 2 women, 5 men

— Laura Hughes (@Laura_K_Hughes)

December 13, 2019

That means two-thirds of seats still remain represented by men.

In a further sign that women still face many hurdles before a 50/50 Parliament becomes possible, analysis by HuffPost found there were no female candidates in 74 seats – roughly 11.5 per cent – at the 2019 poll.

The record number of women comes just over 100 years since Nancy Astor became the first female MP to sit in Parliament.

Theresa Villers after she was re-elected as MP for Chipping Barnet, London (PA)

Lady Astor won the Plymouth Sutton seat in a by-election in 1919, after her husband ascended to the House of Lords following the death of his father.

She stood down in 1945 and died in 1964 aged 84.