The General Election produced a record nine Members of Parliament who cut their political teeth in the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency.

Seven MPs hailing from the area were voted into the House of Commons in this year’s General Election, joining Peter Lilley, MP for Hitchin and Harpenden, who was first elected in 1983, and Conor Burns, MP for Bournemouth West, from the 2010 intake, in Westminster.

Peter said: “It is a great pleasure to be joined in Parliament by so many MPs who cut their teeth in this area.

“There are now nine of us – Conor Burns and Jeremy Quin, now MP for MP for Horsham, who I recruited when they were still at school.

“Also, three former local authority councillors – Nigel Huddleston, MP for Mid Worcestershire, Seema Kennedy, MP for South Ribble, and Heidi Allen, now MP for South Cambridgeshire.

“In addition, there was our former Conservative Association Chairman, Matt Warman, now representing Boston and Skegness in Parliament, Oliver Dowden, who won nearby Hertsmere, and Byron Davies, who won the Gower for the Conservatives for the first time in living memory.

“There must be something in the local air. Maybe it is the spirit of Magna Carta – the precursor of which was drafted by Archbishop Langton in St Albans Abbey – that makes us all keen to promote ‘freedom under the law’.

“Recently more than 100 young people from Hitchin and Harpenden came to Parliament at my invitation to see how it works. Conor Burns told them it was a similar visit which inspired him to set his sights on Parliament.

“I hope among this year’s visitors will be future MPs – of all parties – who will follow in our footsteps. Westminster may be the mother of Parliaments but our part of Hertfordshire is the training ground of MPs.”