Does diversity matter? As the green benches fill up with new MPs much is made of the fact that we now have the most diverse British parliament ever. Female MPs, now make up 29 per cent of Parliament an increase of 23 per cent since 2010, and a 10 fold improvement from Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 Parliament when there were only 19 female MPs, or a pathetic 2.9 per cent of the total.

There are also a record number of ethnic minority MPs with 41 non-white MPs entering the new 2015 parliament compared to 27 at the last General Election, including the first Conservative female Muslim MP, Britain’s first MP from a Chinese background (Conservative Alan Make representing Havant) and an Asian SNP member who has been both a lawyer and a Bollywood actress.

The SNP also have the youngest elected politician in Britain in Mhairi Black, who still has to sit her final university exams but at the age of 20 she can be considered positively ancient compared to the previous holder of the record. Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, was 13 when he was elected as an MP in Devon in 1667. The average age of MPs following the 2015 election has fallen slightly to 50 years old and the Father of the House (who is the longest serving MP) is the rather worryingly frail 84-year-old Gerald Kaufman while the Mother of the House is the still spritely 64-year-old Harriet Harman.

So, overall, the House of Commons is more reflective of the population although still far short of the actual percentages of different groups in the underlying population although interestingly it LGBT MPs come closest to accurately representing underlying trends - who at 5 per cent of MPs come close to what researchers believe to be the sexuality of the population as a whole.

Does any of this actually matter? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, it can only be positive that the House of Commons looks and sounds, more like the real world and has representatives of all walks of life. I was struck in my first term how little so-called “women’s issues” discussed by groups of largely male politicans accurately reflected my priorities and those of the thousands of women I meet. On the other hand, I firmly believe that our representatives should never be chosen purely because of what makes them ‘different’ but on what makes them the best person for the job. Politicians should ultimately be judged on their record and nothing else.