We Went to Westminster
Nine of us left Loughborough at half past six in the morning. By the end of the day, something had shifted for more than a few people in that van.
The Palace of Westminster, 9 June 2026
We left Loughborough Train Station at half past six in the morning. Nine of us. Some had already been there since six, standing around in the early sunshine, half-awake, half-excited, waiting for the van.
Obinna had volunteered to drive, which tells you something about the kind of people in this cohort.
The weather was good when we set off. The mood in the van was good too — a mix of quiet anticipation and the kind of easy conversation that happens when people have already been through something together. Session 01 was behind us. Westminster was ahead.
The Journey
Three and a Half Hours on the Road
It took us over three and a half hours to get there. Traffic. London doing what London does. Somewhere along the way we realised we were going to be late for our 10:50am start and someone made the call to ring the tour team while we were still on the motorway. They held it for us.
By the time we got into London, the weather had changed. It had started to rain — not heavily, but enough to matter when you are nine people trying to navigate from a parked van to the entrance of the Houses of Parliament. We walked fast. Some of us ran. We went through security slightly damp and slightly breathless, and then we were inside.
The Tour
The Palace of Westminster
There is something about that building. You know it from photographs, from the news, from years of seeing it as a backdrop to events that shaped the country. But being inside it is a different experience entirely. The scale of it. The age of it. The sense that decisions of enormous consequence have been made in these rooms for centuries.
Our tour took us through the House of Lords. The guide walked us through the history — the ceremonies, the traditions, the unwritten rules that govern one of the most powerful institutions in the country. At one point, we were shown the spot where Winston Churchill used to stand and deliver his speeches. We were also shown, with some amusement, the place where he stubbed out a cigar — because smoking was not permitted in the chamber, but Churchill was Churchill.
Small details like that have a way of making history feel real.
Inside the Palace of Westminster
The Commons
A Live Debate
After the tour, we took our seats in the public gallery of the House of Commons to observe a live session. Health questions were on the order paper. We watched MPs from across the chamber — Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat — put questions to the Secretary of State on everything from mental health provision and men's health, to dental recruitment, health inequalities, and non-digital access to primary care.
You do not need to follow every line of the debate to feel the weight of it. This was not a simulation. These were real questions, from elected representatives, about real issues affecting real people. Watching it live — the interjections, the responses, the procedural choreography of it all — is not something any of us will forget quickly.
We had to leave before it concluded. We had a 12:15 appointment to keep.
The Q&A
Thirty Minutes with Jeevun
We met Jeevun Sandher MP who is the Member of Parliament for Loughborough — in Westminster Hall. He sat with us for thirty minutes and answered our questions directly and without deflection.
We started by asking him something fundamental: what is the job of an MP, really? He gave us an honest answer — more layered than the textbook version, and more useful for it.
From there the conversation covered immigration, social care, and education. We asked him what he would say to anyone in the room who was thinking about going into politics. His answer was practical and encouraging — and it landed differently for different people in that room.
Westminster Hall
The Journey Home
Four and a Half Hours Back
We left Westminster and got back to Loughborough at around half past four. Ten hours after we had set off.
On the way home, the van was full of conversation again — but a different kind. People were processing. Reflecting. Some were quiet in the way you are when something has genuinely moved you. A few said it was the most significant day of the Fellowship so far.
One person said they had never really felt like those spaces were for them. And that today had shifted something.
That is what this programme exists to do.
BE UK Emerging Leaders Fellowship Cohort 1 — Westminster Hall, 9 June 2026
Thank You
Gratitude
Many thanks to Jeevun Sandher MP and his team, who hosted us and for the opportunity to learn more about the role of MPs in Parliament and how to get involved. Thank you to Obinna for getting us there and back safely. And thank you to everyone who showed up at Loughborough Train Station before the sun had properly risen, ready for whatever the day had in store.
The Fellowship continues. Session 02 is on 20 June. The work goes on.
