Happy families a commons trend: Britain has families together in the ruling and Opposition benches

Two sets of mother-and-son Gandhis sit on the treasury and opposition benches respectively in the Lok Sabha, and other dynasties galore continue to make it to Parliament. Now, spouses Mark Lancaster and Caroline Dinenage have not only made it to the House of Commons together but also into the new Conservatives-only government of David Cameron.

So have brothers Boris and Jo Johnson. Therefore, will the Bharatiya Janata Party satraps who have been reportedly seething silently about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s de facto ban on more than one person per political family in government posts now suggest that if the Mother of Parliaments thinks it’s relatively the right thing to do, he should consider such appointments here too?

Their case would be bolstered by Labour’s concurrence on family packs as well. Ed Balls and his wife Yvette Cooper were members of Gordon Brown cabinet — and the shadow cabinet after his defeat — as were the now-spatting Miliband brothers David and Ed. And although their party’s poll debacle has left Cooper bereft of her husband’s company in the much-diminished Labour enclave across the floor, Harriet Harman and Jack Dromey are still together there, as are siblings Keith and Valerie Vaz and twins Angela and Maria Eagle. So, it’s still happy families all round.