Baby of the House is the unofficial title given to the youngest member of a parliamentary house. The term is most often applied to members of the British parliament, from which the term originated. The title is named after the Father of the House, which is given to the longest-serving member of the British and other parliaments.
In Australia the term is rarely used. Most MPs and senators are elected only in their thirties and later, but some prominent MPs have been elected early in life, including Prime Ministers Harold Holt, Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating, the latter two of whom were both elected at age 25, in 1955 and 1969 respectively, and Holt at age 27. The youngest Baby of the House was Wyatt Roy; he was elected at age 20 in 2010, being the youngest person ever to be elected to an Australian parliament.
, the current Baby of the House is the Member for Hughes David Moncrieff (age 29âÂÂ30). Senator Charlotte Walker (politician) is the youngest member of the Senate (age ).
In the 2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election, Sabina Khasayeva was the youngest MP elected, at the age of 27.
The youngest-ever elected member of the House of Commons of Canada is Pierre-Luc Dusseault, who was elected at the age of 19 years and 11 months in 2011. Dusseault is the youngest MP in Canadian history. In the past this distinction has been held by MPs such as Sean O'Sullivan, Pierre Poilievre, Claude-André Lachance and Lorne Nystrom.
Currently, the youngest MP is Amandeep Sodhi, a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, representing the riding of Brampton Centre, Ontario; born in 2001, and elected at 24 years of age. The youngest member of the Senate of Canada is Patrick Brazeau of Repentigny, Quebec; born 1974, appointed at 34 years of age.
This is a list of youngest members of the National Assembly under the Fifth Republic, at the time of their election.
In Germany the term is rarely used. Emilia Fester was the youngest MP elected in the 2021 federal election at the age of 23.
Emily Vontz became the youngest MP in 2023, at the age of 22.
In 2022, Pascal Leddin became the youngest member of the Landtag of Lower Saxony. In 2022, Jasper Balke became the youngest member of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein.
Kerryne James was elected in the 2022 Grenadian general election at the age of 24, becoming the country's youngest ever legislator.
In Hong Kong the term is rarely used. The current baby of the Legislative Council is Joephy Chan, who was elected in the 2021 Legislative Council election.
From 1991 to 2016 the youngest elected member was James To, who ran for the first Legislative Council direct election in 1991 at the age of 28. His record ceased in 2016, when the youngest-ever elected member Nathan Law and the youngest-ever elected female member Yau Wai-ching were both elected in the 2016 election at the ages of 23 and 25 respectively; they were both disqualified over the oath-taking controversy between 2016 and 2017. He was replaced by Ho Kai-ming, who was the fourth-youngest member when he was elected in 2016. He was later replaced by Au Nok-hin, who was elected in the 2018 by-election, but was unseated in 2019. The title went back to Ho, who subsequently resigned in May 2020 for joining the government and was replaced by Cheng Chung-tai, who was the fifth youngest member in 2016, until he himself got disqualified in August 2021. The title eventually returned to Steven Ho who was elected as the youngest member in 2012.
[(b) â by-election]
The youngest-ever elected member of the National Assembly is Ilona Burka, who became MP at the age of 19 years, 5 months and 13 days on 12 May 1971, following the 1971 parliamentary election.
[(b) â by-election]
In Ireland the term used is Baby of the Dáil (). The current baby of the Dáil is the Labour TD Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central), who was 24 years and 10 months old when elected in November 2024.
The youngest TD of all time was William J. Murphy, elected age 21 years 29 days; the youngest female TD was Kathleen O'Connor, 21 years 7 months.
In Israel the term is seldom used. The youngest member of the current Knesset is Yitzhak Wasserlauf of Otzma Yehudit, elected in 2022 aged 30.
The youngest member of the Knesset ever is Moshe Nissim, elected in 1959 aged 24.
The youngest member of the Chamber of Deputies ever is Enzo Lattuca (PD), elected in 2013, aged 25 years, 1 month, and 6 days.
In Luxembourg's unicameral parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, no specific title exists to designate the youngest deputy. However, the two youngest elected deputies serve a symbolic role in the first public session following a general election; before a President of the Chamber is formally elected, the longest serving deputy (or until 2004, the oldest deputy) fulfills the role of president and is assisted by the two youngest deputies, who serve as secretaries.
The youngest MP in Malawi was Angela Zachepa, who was voted in as MP at age 21.
In Malaysia, the term is very rarely used. Most MPs are directly elected and Senators are appointed or indirectly elected, usually in their middle age, but a few were elected as an MP at a very young age, including former Prime Minister and former Pekan MP Najib Razak, who was elected at 22 years and 6 months in 1976. The youngest ever elected is Batu MP Prabakaran Parameswaran, who was elected at the age of 22 years and 3 months in 2018. The present Baby of the House is Sungai Petani MP Mohammed Taufiq Johari, who was elected in 2022. Mohammed Taufiq is a month younger than Prabakaran. Any citizen 18 years of age or older can become a candidate and be directly elected to the Dewan Rakyat as an MP and State Legislative Assemblies as an MLA, while any citizen 30 years of age or older can be appointed or indirectly elected to the Dewan Negara as a Senator.
In the 2019 general election, Kitlang Kabua became the youngest person ever elected to the NitijeüÃÂ.
In the 2024 Namibian general election, Fenny Tutjavi was the youngest MP elected.
The term "Baby of the House" is rarely used in New Zealand. The current Baby of the House is Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke of Te PÃÂti MÃÂori, who was elected on 14 October 2023 aged 21. Maipi-Clarke succeeded Chlöe Swarbrick of the Green Party, who was elected on 24 September 2017 aged 23.
In the Congress of the Philippines, the term "Baby of the House" is rarely used; the term "Benjamin" of the chamber is used instead. Special treatment is not given to the youngest member of either chamber. However, by tradition, the youngest member of the chamber usually administers the oath of office to their incoming leader (i.e. President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives).
The minimum age for being a member of the House of Representatives is 25 years old, while for the Senate it is 35, as stipulated in the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. In 1933, Benigno Aquino, Sr. became senator at the age of 33; the Jones Law, which created the Senate, had prescribed the minimum age of 30.
The current Benjamin of the House is Representative Andrew Julian Romualdez of Tingog Sinirangan. Meanwhile, Senator Camille Villar has been the youngest Senator since 2025, taking over her older brother, Mark Villar.
In the opening of the 8th Congress of the Philippines under the then newly-promulgated 1987 constitution, the Benjamin of the House, Gerardo Roxas Jr., was the presiding officer until a speaker was elected, instead of the secretary-general, which has not been appointed by the House by then.
The current youngest MP in the Singapore Parliament is Eileen Chong, who was appointed a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament in 2025 at the age of 33. The youngest MP ever elected in Singapore was Lim Chin Siong, who was elected in the 1955 general election at the age of 22.
The current titleholder, since 2017, is Hlomela Bucwa of the Democratic Alliance.
Ada Santana Aguilera (born 1998) is the youngest member of the 15th Congress of Deputies.