First MPs arrive at Westminster as Johnson gov't prepares for new term

Most of the 109 newly elected Conservative Members of British Parliament arrived Monday on early-morning trains at Westminster after last week's landslide victory by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Government.

For most the transition to becoming MPs in the House of Commons will be life-changing, with Monday taken up in training sessions to prepare them for their new role at the center of the country's political decision-making.

The scale of Johnson's victory in the general election, gaining an 80-seat majority, mainly at the expense of the main opposition Labour Party, confounded political analysts, who had predicted a small majority for Johnson, or maybe even another hung parliament.

With Johnson controlling 365 of the 650 MPs, a new era is expected to sweep through Westminster.

British daily newspaper The Guardian in London commented Monday: "One consequence of a surprise election victory is that it results in people who were never expected to win getting into parliament. It remains to be seen whether the new Conservatives, particularly those elected to represent previously safe Labour seats, will end up behaving, culturally and politically, in similar ways to conventional Conservative MPs, or whether they will be noticeably different, pushing the party in a new direction."

Many of the new MPs posted messages and photos of their journeys to London on early morning express trains from various parts of Britain.

Dehenna Davison, who took the Bishop Auckland seat from Labour, made the journey with a group of other victors from northeastern England, describing the group as Team Tees, a reference to the river flowing through their part of the country.

Davison said: "Team Tees are officially on our way to Parliament. Couldn't be happier to be sharing my journey to Westminster with these four amazing lads."

Jonathan Gullis, who won for the Conservatives in Stoke-on-Trent North, said: "With some of the other newbies from the Conservative Party (2019 intake). About to start some training. Still hasn't sunk in. So humbled to have been elected as the MP."

As the so-called "class of 2019" made their way to the Palace of Westminster, home of the British Parliament, Johnson was busy at 10 Downing Street paving the way for a mini re-shuffle of his front-bench team.

The need to appoint a new culture secretary and a new secretary of state for Wales had prompted the re-shuffle, ahead of a planed reshaping of his cabinet in the new year.

The House of Commons officially re-opens for business Tuesday afternoon with the election of a speaker, with Lindsay Hoyle likely to hang on to the job. He was the overwhelming choice of MPs in the old parliament to replace retiring John Bercow.

All MPs will spend Tuesday and Wednesday taking an oath of office. The seven MPs representing the pro-republican Irish political party Sinn Fein do not take up their seats at Westminster by tradition.

Queen Elizabeth will carry out the State Opening of Parliament Thursday outlining a program planned by Johnson's government.

Talks are also taking place Monday to enable the Commons to sit Friday to enable Johnson to put forward his European Union Withdrawal Bill as part of his strategy to end Britain's membership of the bloc next month.

Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party, described in the Monday morning newspapers as a party in a civil war with itself, continued to contemplate why things went so badly wrong.