King’s College London student becomes an MP after winning parliamentary by-election

A King’s College London student has become an MP after winning a parliamentary by-election.

Lara Bird, a part-time PhD student at King’s College London, was elected to Parliament on June 18th.

Her election marks a rare instance of a university student serving as a member of Parliament during their studies, and the first known instance of a King’s College London student doing so.

Standing as the Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, Lara won 9,802 out of 23,827 total votes (41% per cent).

Runner-up, Jack Cruickshanks of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, received 4,524 votes (19 per cent), and in third place, Bill Reid of Reform UK received 4,341 votes (18.2 per cent).

The Scottish Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates, received 15.3 per cent and 6.1 per cent of the votes respectively.

Bird’s election marks an improvement from 2024 for the Scottish National Party in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.

In the 2024 general election, SNP candidate Stephen Gethins only narrowly defeated the Scottish Labour candidate, winning 15,581 votes with a majority of 859.

In comparison, Lara won more than double the numbers of votes as the second-place candidate running for her seat.

Along with being a King’s student and an official Member of Parliament, Lara is also a qualified barrister and holds an LLB from the University of Sheffield and an LLM from the London School of Economics.

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She won the Queen Mother Scholarship in 2022, a prestigious award offered by Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court in London, which is awarded to students demonstrating academic excellence and high potential for a career as a barrister.

In terms of politics, she has been involved with the SNP since the age of 16, when she began campaigning for the party in 2014 and spoke on the radio about the Scottish referendum.

Since 2024, she has worked within Westminster as a foreign affairs and defence researcher and policy advisor for the SNP.

Bird says she got her interest in politics from her dad, saying: “He was always very keen that we were engaged on issues.”

She added: “I had really wonderful support and a dad that worked really hard for us.”

In her victory speech on June 19th, Lara said the people of Arbroath and Broughty Ferry have “rejected the politics of division and hate” and have shown that their community is “inclusive, hopeful, and proud.”

She explained that “while there are challenges that we must face, we will face them together and not allow others to turn us against each other.”

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Featured image via Instagram @larabirdsnp and Unsplash