BYM welcomes all Quaker MPs

'Our Friends serve in difficult times, and we uphold them as they seek to follow the Quaker way of truth to bring about a more just, peaceful and equitable world.’

Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) welcomed six Quaker MPs to parliament, after a dramatic general election in which Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a landslide victory.

‘We wish all Quaker MPs elected yesterday courage for the future. Our Friends serve in difficult times, and we uphold them as they seek to follow the Quaker way of truth to bring about a more just, peaceful and equitable world,’ a statement on social media said, on 5 July. 

The Friends are: Steffan Aquarone (Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk); Ruth Cadbury (Labour MP for Brentford & Isleworth); Carla Denyer (Green Party co-leader and MP for Bristol Central); Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour MP for Calder Valley); Catherine West (Labour MP for Hornsey & Friern Barnet); and Yuan Yang (Labour MP for Earley & Woodley).

Carla Denyer, a former member of Young Friends General Meeting, became Bristol’s first Green MP when she defeated Quaker Thangam Debbonaire in the newly-created Bristol Central seat. The Labour candidate had been MP for former constituency Bristol West since 2010. Carla Denyer gained the seat with 24,539 votes (56.6 per cent), while Thangam Debbonaire received 14,132 votes (32.6 per cent).

Yuan Yang, a former journalist, is the UK’s first Chinese-born MP.

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