The 1922 Committee, also known as "the 22", is a committee of all backbench Conservative MPs that meets weekly when the Commons is sitting. Its chair, usually a senior MP, is elected by committee ...

In 1820 the merchants of Britain's largest trading cities - London, Manchester and Glasgow - petitioned the House of Commons for the abolition of all duties, in other words, for 'free trade'. It led ...

The Commons Chamber looks very different to that of the Lords. The current Chamber was rebuilt after the Blitz by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in relatively austere style (although it was ...

The Recording Angel memorial in St Stephen's Porch, Westminster Hall, is dedicated to Peers, MPs, officers and their sons. This memorial is the main memorial to Members and staff of both Houses, ...

Devolution in the UK has created a national Parliament in Scotland, a Welsh Parliament - or Senedd Cymru - and a national Assembly in Northern Ireland. This process transfers varying levels of power ...

In medieval times farming was based on large fields, known as open fields, in which individual yeomen or tenant farmers cultivated scattered strips of land. From as early as the 12th century, however, ...

Its last remaining monopoly over the China tea trade was abolished in 1833. Parliament allowed the Company to maintain its political and administrative duties in India, but the charter of 1813 ...

The 1835 competition to redesign the Palace was won by the Westminster-born architect Charles Barry. By then, the 40-year-old Barry was already quite a famous architect, having built several churches ...

Magna Carta was issued in June 1215 and was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law. It sought to prevent the king from exploiting ...

The government of the Raj consisted wholly of British officials and was headed by the viceroy and the appointed members of his council. After the Indian Councils Act was passed in 1861 this executive ...

On the 5th October 1936, 200 unemployed men began to march to Parliament as part of the Jarrow Crusade. The Crusade, led by David Riley (chair of Jarrow council) and Ellen Wilkinson, covered 282 miles ...

The Government asserts that, in its licensing of arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the current hostilities in Yemen, it is “narrowly on the right side” of international humanitarian law. The Committee ...