A more diverse range of MPs is being sworn in at the House of Commons.

The proportion of women MPs in the new parliament has risen from 18 per cent to 19.8 per cent following the general election, while ethnic minority representation has risen slightly from 1.7 to two per cent.

However both figures remain significantly short of the population as whole, which will increase calls from campaigners for positive discrimination.

Overall the number of women MPs went up from 119 at dissolution in April to 128.

That includes a net increase of three to the Conservative ranks and four each to the Liberal Democrats and Labour.

The total number of Labour women in the Commons rose from 94 to 98 and as a proportion from 23.1 to 27.7 per cent.

The Tories have gone from 14 to 17 female MPs, proportionately stable at 8.7 per cent as their total ranks swelled from 160 to 195.

And the Lib Dems went from six to 10, a rise of 5.2 points to 16.1 per cent.

Minor parties

Among the minor parties and independents the number of women fell from four out of 29 (13.8 per cent) to three out of 32 (9.3 per cent) as the SNP lost Annabelle Ewing.

Sinn Fein, the DUP and UUP all kept their one woman each in the Commons, although the republican Michelle Gildernew will not take her seat.

Having lost all but one of their seats the UUP is now the only party with 100 per cent female representation in the form of Lady Sylvia Hermon.

Of MPs who defended their constituency but were defeated, 10 out of 46 (21.7 per cent) were female, making women proportionally more likely to lose their seat.

However of the new intake 39 out of 123 (31.7 per cent) are women, with the difference made up by those who stood down and the change in Scottish seats.

Minorities

The number of ethnic minority MPs has risen slightly from 11 to 13 although proportionately the rise was slightly larger as the total size of the Commons fell from 659 seats to 645.

The Conservatives went from none out of 160 to two - Adam Afriyie in Windsor and Shailesh Vara in North West Cambridgeshire - out of 195

Meanwhile the Lib Dems lost their one Asian MP - Parmjit Singh Gill who won in last year's Leicester South by-election - to go back to zero.

With Oona King defeated in Bethnal Green and Bow and Paul Boateng stepping down, Labour lost two of its most high profile black MPs.

However overall its ethnic minority numbers swelled from 10 to 11 and proportionately from 2.5 to 3.1 per cent.

Parmjit Dhanda, Piara Khabra, Ashok Kumar, Marsha Singh, Diane Abbot, Keith Vaz, David Lammy and Mohammed Sarwar were all returned while Dawn Butler in Brent South, Shahid Malik in Dewsbury and Sadiq Khan in Tooting were elected for the first time.

But the two per cent of ethnic minority MPs is still a long way short of the 7.88 per cent representation in the UK population as a whole in the 2001 census.