"I was led to my coat peg and it suddenly hit home"

Lucy Rigby was shown her coat peg during a tour of the House of Commons

One of Northamptonshire's five new MPs has been describing the moment when it first hit home that she had been elected.

Labour's Lucy Rigby, who was voted in to serve Northampton North, was shown her reserved coat peg during a tour of the House of Commons.

Her Labour colleague Mike Reader, who now represents Northampton South, said he kept getting lost despite being shown around the building by a tour guide.

Both have been told by party whips that they have a busy time ahead of them.

New MPs have been given "buddies" from the House of Commons staff

Ms Rigby went to Westminster on Sunday to collect her pass, meet the "incredible" House of Commons staff and look around the building.

She said: "I was led to my coat peg, which has Northampton North above it, and it suddenly hit home to me that this is the ancient workings of our democracy and I've been sent to Parliament by voters in Northampton North to make positive change."

She is one of a record number of 335 new MPs who will be sworn in later this week.

All of them have been given "buddies" from the House of Commons staff who help them find their way around.

Lucy Rigby had a tour of Parliament including the 11th-Century Westminster Hall

Mr Reader said: "It's very surreal to be here - really nerve-wracking.

"I had an amazing tour guide called Will - he was my buddy but happened also to be a tour guide so I got a double whammy of finding out where the loos are and also a bit of history as I walked around the House with him."

Although he has not been allocated an office yet, Mr Reader is already getting emails from people in his constituency asking for help.

Mike Reader won Northampton South from the Conservatives on Thursday

Mr Reader admitted that he had already "got lost several times - I got lost trying to get out of the building yesterday and got lost coming in this morning so it's going to take some time to find my feet."

"We had a briefing from the whips and they were very clear that we've got a lot of government business to do," he added.

"People want change, they want change quickly, so we're going to be in Parliament full time, [and] working hard from Monday."