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Baby of the House is the unofficial title given to the youngest member of a Lower house or Upper house.

Contents 1 Australia 2 Canada 3 United Kingdom 3.1 List of Babies of the House of Commons 4 United States 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References

In Australia the term is rarely used, as most MPs and Senators are elected usually only in their thirties and later but some prominent MPs have been elected rather early in life including Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating who were both elected at age 25 in 1955 and 1969 respectively. The current baby of the house is the 30 year old Kate Ellis (Labor, Adelaide).

The youngest member of the Canadian House of Commons is Pierre Poilievre born on June 03 1979 ( 1979-06-03) (age 28) who was first elected in 2004 at the age of 24. Poilievre was re-elected in the 2006 general election, and since no younger MP was elected at that time, he remains Canada's youngest MP.

Becoming the Baby of the House is regarded as something of an achievement, and for example, Jeffrey Archer falsely claimed to have been the youngest MP at the time of his election. However, some MPs who have held the position for a considerable period — Matthew Taylor was the Baby of the House for over ten years — have found it somewhat embarrassing, as it may suggest that they have a lack of experience, although a perusal of the list shows that many babies in fact went on to enjoy long, significant and distinguished parliamentary careers. From August 1999 to September 2001, all three of the leaders of the main political parties had been the youngest MPs in the party when they began their political career (William Hague, Tony Blair, Charles Kennedy).

Of those whose age can be verified, the youngest MP since the Reform Act 1832^[1] was Esmond Harmsworth, elected on 15 November 1919 from Isle of Thanet aged 21 years 170 days. The youngest female MP was Bernadette Devlin, elected on 17 April 1969 from Mid Ulster aged 21 years 359 days.

The oldest Baby at first election in modern times is Sarah Teather elected in 2003 aged 29 years 109 days.

Elected	Name	Constituency	Party		Age
1895	William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam	Wakefield		Liberal Unionist	22
1898b	Arthur Hill	West Down		Conservative	24
1900	Richard Rigg	Appleby		Liberal	23
1904b	Edward Turnour	Horsham		Conservative	21
1906	John Wodehouse	Mid Norfolk		Liberal	22
1910	Charles Thomas Mills	Uxbridge		Conservative	22
1912b	Philip Sassoon	Hythe		Conservative	23
1915b	John Esmonde	North Tipperary		Irish Parliamentary	21
1916b	Patrick Joseph Whitty	North Louth		Irish Parliamentary	21
1917b	Edward Stanley	Liverpool Abercromby		Conservative	22
19181	Joseph Aloysius Sweeney	West Donegal		Sinn Féin	21
1919b	Esmond Harmsworth	Isle of Thanet		Coalition Conservative	21
1922	Henry Arthur Evans	Leicester East		National Liberal	24
1923	Charles Arthur Uryan Rhys	Romford		Conservative	24
1924	Hugh Lucas-Tooth	Isle of Ely		Conservative	21
1929b	Jennie Lee	North Lanarkshire		Labour	24
1929	Frank Owen	Hereford		Liberal	23
1931	John Roland Robinson	Widnes		Conservative	24
1933b	Lord Willoughby de Eresby	Rutland and Stamford		Conservative	25
1935b	Charles Taylor	Eastbourne		Conservative	24
1935	Malcolm Macmillan	Western Isles		Labour	22
1940b	John Profumo	Kettering		Conservative	25
1941b	George Charles Grey	Berwick-upon-Tweed		Liberal	22
19442	John Profumo	Kettering		Conservative	29
1945b	Ernest Millington	Chelmsford		Common Wealth	29
1945	Hon. Edward Carson	Isle of Thanet		Conservative	25
1948b	Roy Jenkins	Southwark Central		Labour	27
1950	Peter Baker	South Norfolk		Conservative	28
1950b	Thomas Teevan	Belfast West		Ulster Unionist	23
19513	Tony Benn	Bristol South East		Labour	26
1954b	John Eden	Bournemouth West		Conservative	28
19554	Philip Clarke	Fermanagh and South Tyrone		Sinn Féin	21
19554	Peter Kirk	Gravesend		Conservative	27
1957b	Robert Cooke	Bristol West		Conservative	26
1958b	Patrick Wolrige-Gordon	East Aberdeenshire		Conservative	23
1959b	Paul Channon	Southend West		Conservative	23
1964	Teddy Taylor	Glasgow Cathcart		Conservative	27
1965b	David Steel	Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles		Liberal	26
1966	John Ryan	Uxbridge		Labour	25
1967b	Leslie Huckfield	Nuneaton		Labour	24
1969b	Bernadette Devlin	Mid Ulster		Unity	21
1974	Dafydd Elis-Thomas	Merioneth		Plaid Cymru	27
1974	Hélène Hayman	Welwyn and Hatfield		Labour	25
1979b	David Alton	Liverpool Edge Hill		Liberal	28
1979	Stephen Dorrell	Loughborough		Conservative	27
19815b	Bobby Sands	Fermanagh and South Tyrone		Anti H-Block	27
19812	Stephen Dorrell	Loughborough		Conservative	29
19815b	Owen Carron	Fermanagh and South Tyrone		Anti H-Block	28
1983	Charles Kennedy	Ross, Cromarty and Skye		Social Democrat	23
1987b	Matthew Taylor	Truro		Liberal	24
19976	Christopher Leslie	Shipley		Labour	24
2000b	David Lammy	Tottenham		Labour	27
2003b	Sarah Teather	Brent East		Liberal Democrat	29
2005	Jo Swinson	East Dunbartonshire		Liberal Democrat	25

^b by-election.

¹ Joseph Aloysius Sweeney did not take his seat; the youngest MP actually sitting in the House of Commons was Oswald Mosley (Conservative, aged 22)

² Became the youngest MP for a second time, on the death of the previous youngest MP.

³ Tony Benn was first elected at the Bristol South East by-election, 1950, aged 25, but only became the youngest MP from the 1951 general election, on the defeat of Teevan.

⁴ Elected on an abstentionist ticket, Philip Clarke did not take his seat. Peter Kirk was first elected at the 1955 general election, when he became the youngest MP to take his seat, but only became the youngest MP with the disqualification of Philip Clarke later in the year.

⁵ Elected on an abstentionist ticket, Bobby Sands and Owen Carron did not take their seats; Stephen Dorrell remained the youngest MP actually sitting in the House of Commons.

⁶ Although several sources claim Claire Ward was the youngest MP during this period, she was 50 days older than Christopher Leslie.

Currently the "Baby of the House" in the United States House of Representatives is Patrick T. McHenry who was born on October 22, 1975 (1975-10-22) (age 32). The "Baby of the House" before McHenry who was elected at the age of 26 in 2000 was Adam H. Putnam, who was born on July 31, 1974 (1974-07-31) (age 33) .

Currently the "Baby of the Senate" in the United States Senate is John E. Sununu who was born on September 10 1964 ( 1964-09-10) (age 43). The "Baby of the Senate" before Sununu who was elected at the age of 38 in 1998 was, Blanche Lincoln who was born on September 30, 1960 (1960-09-30) (age 47)

• Father of the House

• Youngest Members of Parliament