Parliament Flashcards
Chief whips of Conservative and Labour
Speakers of the HoC and the HoL
Simon Hart and Alan Campbell
Lindsay Hoyle and John McFall
Which Act let PMs nominate life peers
How many life peers did Blair nominate?
2 criticisms of life peerages?
Life Peers Act 1958
374
Can be a form of patronage i.e. Cash For Peerages or Boris Johnson awarding his aide a peerage, she would be the youngest ever.
Cameron only included 1 labour in his resignation list despite convention it should be representative
3 main functions to analyse Parliament/ HoC and HoL over
Representation
Legislation
Scrutiny
How does the House of Commons represent - 3 ways w/ examples
Represents constituents - 40 Tory MPs didn’t vote for Truss’ fracking unban in Oct 2022 - despite it being whipped.
Similar for HS2 and Heathrow runaway
Represents the party/ executive - Strong whip system means this is often the case. Removes party membership for those who defy i.e. Johnson removed the whip from 21 members who didn’t back the withdrawal agreement, Ken Clarke, Caroline Nokes
Can represent cross-party interest groups i.e. John McDonnell and Zac Goldsmith both part of an anti-3rd runway group. Can also be formal All-Parliamnetray Groups (APGs) such as Crispin Blun chairing Drug Reform APG - reviews reports and asks questions
How socially representative is the HoC and HoL
Age
Gender
Race
Age - average age around 50 for the HoC vs 71 for HoL
Gender - Women are 34% of MPs… Although more female Labour MPs than males right now. Cameron’s “A-List” and “Blair’s Babes” have seen a big rise
The House of Lords has around 1/3 female Lords - although recently only 1 in 5 life peerages have nominated a woman
Race - 63 MPs are BAME,, the highest of all time. Still lacks compared to the 19.5% it should be.
45% of Tory MPs went to fee-paying schools, and 86% of all MPs have a degree
How does the House of Commons scrutinise/ hold the government accountable on a whole (exclude committees) - …otoh
What enhances this scrutiny
What does this scrutiny ultimately depend on
(Prime) Ministerial Questions - Forces ministers and the PM to vet and be able to defend policy - Keir Starmer attacking Johnson over fines for COVID breaches.
Often theatrical and an excuse for adversarial politicking rather than proper scrutiny
The threat of rebellions/ no-confidence votes - Can ruin a leader’s image and force them to back down from policy for fear of looking weak. Theresa May faced 33 defeats and a no-confidence vote. Lost all authority.
Losing these votes is rare and can make use of strong whip systems.
Media scrutiny enhances all of this - i.e. huge pressure on Truss led to Jeremy Hunt becoming Chancellor and undoing all her policies - as well as her eventual resignation.
Ultimately depends on strength and unity of party and size of majority - i.e. Blair suffered 4 defeat compared to May’s 33. The party can be split by divisive issues like Brexit.
How many select comittees are there - who are its members, what is their role and what makes them good at scrutiny.
Any weaknesses
20 departmental Select Committees - one for each major state department and their role is to scrutinise the work and outcomes of these departments.
Membership, which reflects the house as a whole, is decided by a secret ballot.
Bipartisan nature dedicated to scrutiny rather than politicking - reports are often unanimous
Pay rise and prestige means the role is honoured and fulfilled well
Parliamentary privilege and power to call witnesses allows ruthless questions (led to the suicide of David Kelly in 2015??)
Streamlined - none of the time consuming rituals - effective scrutiny
However,, it lacks teeth and its reports can often be swept under the rug by the government/ ignored by the media unless particularly damning
Which select committee can hold the PM to account? Has it
The Liasion Committee was ignored 3 times by Johnson - who had previously walked out of a Transport Committee meeting as Mayor of London
What is the “queen of select committees” - current chair and recent examples of scrutiny
Public Accounts Committee - always chaired by an opposition MP. Taslked with monitoring effective government spending.
i.e. recently criticised for failing to collect taxes or investing in trade infrastructure post-brexit
What are public bill committees? Do they provide effective scrutiny
Committees to consider amendments for legislation that has passed the 2nd reading in the HoC. Could theoretically change the nature of a bill by accepting amendments but in reality the only amendments accepted are government ones, the party in power always has a majority and the government MPs are often “voting fodder”, instructed by the whip.
3 reasons House of Commons can/ does not sufficiently ensure quality of legislation?
Public Bill committees are always dominated by whipped “voting fodder”
A large majority, which can be whipped, means debates are often meaningless - wasting Parliament time
Much legislation is changed through secondary legislation/ Henry VIII powers, which the HoC does not have as many powers/ time over
Example of potentially worrying legislation passed due to a strong majority, or Henry VIII powers
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 gives police broad and vague powers over the right to assembly - potentially dictated by the Home Office…
Boris Johnson used 425 statutory instruments with little requirement for Parliamentary approval during his COVID-19 response.
Sunak’s current minimum service bill includes a worrying Henry VII clause allowing unilateral changes to be made
Retained EU Law Bill would give ministers power over former EU law - not Parliament
Good examples of legislation being defeated - why
Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement was defeated 3 times - controversial and a minority government - including the biggest defeat ever (432)
The above only happened due to the Brexit Bill 2017 - giving Parliament a final say on the Brexit deal due to 11 Tory MPs defying a three-line whip
2005 - Blair’s 90 day detainment period for terrorist suspects was defeated due to its controversy
Exclusive House of Commons powers the HoL doesn’t have - how come
Only HoC can defeat legislation - HoL can only delay for up to one year (Parliament Act of 1949) + reasonable time convention and can’t oppose manifesto legislation at all (Salisbury Convention/ gov. mandate)
Only HoC can vote on the budget/ financial matters (Parliament Act 1911)
Only HoC can call a vote of no-confidence
HoL can not legitimate decisions - legislatively or militarily as they are not elected representatives
HoC have final say over all amendments
One way in which the HoL is more representative than the HoC
In terms of parties/ issues. FPTP often denies proportional representation - 180 crossbench peers will represent some causes forgotten by the election.
