A number of charity leaders have been elected MPs in yesterday’s general election. 

Laura Kyrke-Smith, former UK executive director of the International Rescue Committee, has become the first Labour MP for Aylesbury, while Kirsty McNeill, former executive director of policy, advocacy and campaigns at Save the Children UK, was elected the Labour MP for Midlothian. 

Melanie Ward, chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, won the seat of Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy while Torsten Bell, former chief of the Resolution Foundation, will represent Swansea West, both of them for Labour. 

Adrian Ramsay, co-leader of the Green Party and former chief executive of the environmental charity the MCS Foundation, was successful in his bid to win the new seat of Waveney Valley and becomes one of four Green MPs in the new House of Commons. 

Chris Coghlan, who has spent the past five years as director of finance and operations at Access - The Foundation for Social Investment, was elected as the new Liberal Democrat MP for Dorking and Horley. 

In 2009, he founded the Grow Movement, a social enterprise that works to improve the lives of people in sub-Saharan Africa by training entrepreneurs. 

Stuart Andrew, who spent almost two years as the Minister for Civil Society, will return to parliament as a backbench Conservative MP after winning the Daventry seat he was parachuted into. 

His party suffered historic losses, losing 250 seats as the Labour Party swept to power with a huge majority. 

Andrew had previously represented Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough since 2010 but it was dissolved as part of boundary changes introduced for this election. 

Although many of his ministerial colleagues found themselves on the wrong side of election results, Andrew avoided suffering the same fate as the former third sector minister Angela Smith, who was among the Labour MPs to lose their seats in the 2010 election that resulted in the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government. 

- This article was updated on 8 July 2024 to include a reference to Chris Coghlan