Westminster's new arrivals thrown in at deep end

Some of the 21 newly-elected MPs from the region were among those issued with welcome packs before being shown around parliament for the first time since winning their election last week.

But for the new Tory and Liberal Democrat recruits, there was little time to settle in as they were thrust into meetings of their parliamentary parties yesterday to try to thrash out a deal to form a new government.

Jason McCartney, who won Colne Valley for the Tories after 13 years of being held by Labour, said he was excited about "cracking on with it" and getting an office up and running as soon as possible.

Mr McCartney, a former presenter on ITV's Calendar, said: "I've only ever been to Westminster twice before in my life. I've just been looking at maps. It's not a place I know particularly well. I'm going to have to find my way around.

"It's going to be good to see a lot of new Conservative MPs from West Yorkshire. We've all been candidate for three or four years, so we all know each other really well."

Among the other new Tory MPs travelling to London yesterday were Pudsey's Stuart Andrew, Elmet and Rothwell's Alec Shelbrooke, and Simon Reevell, who beat Labour's Communities Minister Shahid Malik to win the Dewsbury seat.

Labour's Rachel Reeves, who won the safe seat of Leeds West following the retirement of John Battle, was also among the early arrivals.

Michael Dugher, the new Labour MP for Barnsley East, was also there yesterday morning. As Gordon Brown's former chief political spokesman and a former special adviser to Geoff Hoon, he is already a familiar face at Westminster.