Steve Darling and guide dog Jennie (Image: Adam Gerrard)
A new MP who is blind hopes his guide dog can be a "force for positivity" after she stole the show with her Commons debut.
Liberal Democrat Steve Darling said the reaction to Jennie - who has been dubbed the party's 73rd MP - has been "heartening".
The Torbay MP said she has won the hearts of police officers on the parliamentary estate, while MPs from other parties have asked for selfies.
A fan even created the four-year-old Golden Retriever cross Labrador her own account on X, formerly Twitter, which has amassed more than 17,000 followers following her first appearance in the chamber earlier this month.
Mr Darling said: "I've got a support worker who was up with me in the first week and she was saying to me these men and women with big guns and potentially quite scary looking, it's as if they're just looking at their their their newborn child or their new girlfriend and you can feel the love oozing out of people.
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"Also the fact that I've had a couple of MPs wanting to have a selfie with Jennie because their kids love Jennie and things like that. And so it has really been heartening.
"Part of what I hope this Parliament needs to do is rebuild trust in politics.
"I think I thought that it would be a positive experience with Jennie because she is so loving and she has almost like an aura of positivity around her, but it has been surprising.
"But she is the 73rd Lib Dem MP and as long as she's that force for positivity and good I'm sure that can't be a bad thing."
Mr Darling, who was registered blind at the age of 18, said it is important that disabled people are represented in the Commons.
The Torbay MP said the reaction to Jennie has been 'heartening' (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Express)
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He said: "In the last Parliament I think there were five people who had a significant disability. I know that my swearing in there was another lady who had a significant disability as well.
"And it's so important that the Commons should reflect our communities so that those who've had lived experiences are able to actually understand that world of discrimination."
He added: "I don't want my disability to define me but I'm very happy to make sure that I use it to make sure that we see an improvement for people with disabilities and make sure we're driving that agenda."
Mr Darling, who previously led Torbay Council for four years, described Jennie as the "ideal Westminster dog".
He said: "With a guide dog you either get a slow, a moderate or a fast dog and she's a fast dog so she will just whip down the street quite quickly.
"But also she's the type of dog that when she gets somewhere she'll just collapse into a heap rather than wanting to explore the room and things like that.
"So when I was leader of the local authority they said we know that you're going to be busy out doing stuff, but also lots of meetings. That's why they chose Jennie and she's the ideal Westminster dog."
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Mr Darling said Parliament was "like a maze" but revealed he has been given tips by Labour grandee Lord Blunkett, who had a guide dog when he was an MP.
He said: "I met with David Blunkett in the first week and that was really useful having a conversation with him around his experiences.
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"We're going to meet again because he was able to share some of the things about how he was able to engage in the chamber, and how he got colleagues to alert him that somebody was trying to intervene, or when you're running out of time, because there's a clock that tells you when you're running out of time and things like that."
Mr Darling said he intends to spend his time in Parliament "championing" Torbay, as well as raising awareness around the cost of living crisis, the NHS and sewage dumping.