The Iron Lady has officially returned to Parliament – in the form of a three stone tortoise.
With her hard shell and slow-moving approach to politics, Maggie is the latest parliamentarian to grace the halls of Westminster.
And she comes with a menagerie of fellow politicians, such as Boris, Betty, Patrick, Gordon and her owner, newly elected Speaker of the Commons, Lindsay Hoyle.
Taking over from John Bercow was never going to be an easy task but the Labour MP is already adding some colour to his role by bringing his circus of political pets to Westminster.
Mr Hoyle, from Chorley in Lancashire, was elected on Monday after Mr Bercow, who served in the role for more than a decade stepped down, and his job will be to maintain order in the chamber.
And his extensive experience with animals is expected to serve him well when vying to tame the often unruly MPs in Westminster.
Joining Mr Hoyle is Boris the parrot, named after none other than the British prime minister, who can already squark in glee: ‘Order, order!’
Describing his enthusiastic companion, Hoyle told the BBC: ‘It does repeat itself quite a lot, it’s a great character of the house’.
The biggest of the bunch is Gordon, the nine stone Rottweiler, who was named after the former Labour PM for his clunking paw.
Mr Hoyle, 62, said: ‘If you stop stroking him, this big paw bangs you to stroke him again. Hence he was called Gordon’.
The Rottweiler’s dainty counterpart, Betty, a Patterdale Terrier, is named after another famous political figure.
As the Commons’ 158th Speaker, it seems more than fitting that Mr Hoyle would honour one of his predecessors, Betty Boothroyd, who served as the first female in the post between 1992 and 2000.
The new Speaker was set to welcome two cats into the new home, but one of them Dennis – named after veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner – sadly passed away and Patrick, the American Maine Coon, will be the only feline in the house.
And finally, Maggie the tortoise, who was named after Margaret Thatcher due to her ‘hard shell’ is certainly ‘not for turning’, according to Mr Hoyle.
The former deputy speaker, who represents Chorley, had been strongly tipped to emerge victorious.
After three rounds of voting on Monday, he went head to head against fellow Labour MP Chris Bryant and won by 325 votes to 213.
On taking up his new role, Mr Hoyle vowed to make change adding: ‘We’ve got to make sure that tarnish is polished away,’ he added.
‘This House will change, but it will change for the better.’
