<P> The shortest - lived female MP, Lady Cynthia Mosley, MP for Stoke 1929--31, died in 1933 aged 34 . The youngest female MP to die in office was Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spen since 2015, who was murdered on 16 June 2016, 6 days before her 42nd birthday . </P> <P> Sir Francis Knollys (also the oldest ever sitting MP) was first elected as MP for Oxford in 1575 at the age of around 25 and was MP for Reading at the time of his death in 1648, a period spanning 73 years, although there were eight periods, amounting to 27 entire years (1590--92, 1594--96, 1599 - 1600, 1602--03, 1605--13, 1615--19, 1627 and 1630--39) in which the Parliament of England did not meet, and his period of service totalled little more than 23 years . </P> <P> The longest span of service of an MP since the start of the 20th century was Winston Churchill who was first elected on 1 October 1900 and left the House of Commons on 25 September 1964, a period of 63 years 360 days . His service was not continuous, as he was not an MP for a spell in 1908 and between 1922 and 1924 . Charles Pelham Villiers was the longest continuously serving MP . He was elected in 1835 and remained an MP continuously for over 62 years until his death on 16 January 1898, aged 96 years 13 days . </P> <P> The longest continuous service and longest total service records for a female MP was held by Gwyneth Dunwoody, at over 34 years and 38 years respectively until Harriet Harman and Dame Margaret Beckett broke those records . The longest span of service for a woman was 42 years and 4 months for Irene Ward, first elected in 1931 and an MP until 1974 although she did not hold a seat between 1945 and 1950 . </P>

Who is the longest serving mp in the uk