How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't

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MPs feel its force immediately, because it’s the Whips’ Office that allocates them their parliamentary office when they arrive: spacious penthouses at the top of Portcullis House for favoured MPs, and dark little cubbyhole basements for lowly ones. Those terms remain in use today. Most government legislation involves a three-line whip to ensure it goes through, but the circumstances can become even more acute than that. In 2021, for instance, Tory MP Owen Paterson was found guilty by the Committee on Standards of an “egregious case of paid advocacy” after he used his parliamentary position to promote two companies that hired him as a paid consultant. The committee recommended that he be suspended from the Commons for 30 days, but the government moved to protect him. There’s a small army of people involved in the parliamentary whipping operation. On the Government side you have the chief whip, who is appointed by the Prime Minister, along with three senior whips, six other whips and seven assistant whips. The opposition has a chief whip, a deputy and perhaps 12 or 13 others. Tim Fortescue, Tory chief whip in the 1970s, admitted in a 1995 documentary that the whips office had covered up MP scandals. “If we could get a chap out of trouble,” he said, “then he will do as we ask forever more.” If that happens, an MP is said to have “lost the whip”. This means that they can sit in Parliament as an independent, but are no longer representing the party. Electorally, it is the kiss of death – independent candidates almost never succeed in elections.

Westminster – and make MPs How the whips actually control Westminster – and make MPs

It’s a very nice quote, elegantly expressed. It is also hard to think of any vision of MPs that could be further removed from their current status. In May 2017, Dunt was part of the team that launched Remainiacs, a political podcast about Britain's departure from the European Union, as seen from a pro- Remain perspective. In January 2020 the same team launched The Bunker, a podcast similar in format that discusses political issues other than Brexit. [8] In October 2020, Remainiacs was renamed Oh God, What Now? [9] Bibliography [ edit ] Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell resigned in 2012 after an altercation with police in which they reported he had called them “plebs”. Officers involved later issued a statement in which they apologised for misleading the public, but a subsequent libel trial saw the judge rule that Mitchell had said “the words alleged or something so close to them as to amount to the same”.You’re humiliated by the whips, who force you to vote on the party line day in, day out,” Rory Stewart says. “There’s barely any point reading the legislation. It becomes clear your promotion has nothing to do with expertise. It’s about loyalty and defending the indefensible. The culture in the tearoom is very gossipy and trivialising. You can’t earnestly grab someone in the corridor and try to talk seriously about a policy issue. It’s not the done thing. It’s a very unserious culture. It doesn’t reward earnestness in any way.” Whip scandals It’s changed enormously,” veteran Tory rebel Peter Bone says. “When I first came in in 2005, it was very much ‘you’ve got to do what you’re told’. I remember being summoned in with Brian Binley by the senior deputy chief whip about some abstention we made and being talked to like we were schoolboys by the headmaster. They would threaten you with your career. I’ve been sworn at. All that sort of stuff.” But even though the whips are less brutal than they used to be, the basic enforcement mechanism remains in place. If you rebel, you will probably write yourself off from a ministerial position, at least under the current leadership. If you insist on assessing legislation on its own terms rather than simply voting as you’re told, you will sabotage your political career. These incentives would be effective on most people, but they are particularly effective on MPs. As Ashley Weinberg’s psychological research on MPs showed, they are disproportionately likely to be motivated by authority and social recognition and to value leadership positions.

Ian Dunt, How Westminster Works…and Why It Doesn’t Ian Dunt, How Westminster Works…and Why It Doesn’t

While the culture of the Whips’ Office has become less explicitly bullying, the fundamental nature of the operation and the extent of its influence remains nearly as strong as ever. In almost every stage of the parliamentary process, it acts to stifle debate, limit scrutiny, close down avenues of interrogation, reduce independent thought and strengthen the power of the political parties. Ian Dunt (born 4 February 1982) is a British author, political journalist and broadcaster. He currently writes as a columnist for the i. [1] He previously served for many years as the Editor of politics.co.uk. He was also a host on the Remainiacs podcast. [2] [3] [4] Early life [ edit ] This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. ( May 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)There’s a quote by the philosophical father of conservatism, Edmund Burke, about the role of an MP that often does the rounds in Westminster. It’s one of those lines that reliably pops up whenever there’s some matter of constitutional importance being discussed. He made it in a speech in Bristol in 1774, as he outlined what constituents should expect of their local MP. The complexity of Parliament and the ignorance of its inhabitants are both part of a system of control. It is useful for the party leadership that the situation should remain this way, so it does. The importance of a vote was once communicated by how many times it had been underlined. A single-line whip was non-binding, a two-line whip was an instruction, with attendance required unless given prior permission, and a three-line whip was of the utmost seriousness, with failure to attend and vote as directed possibly leading to exclusion from the Parliamentary party. It put MPs on a three-line whip to dismiss the committee report and scrap the existing standards system. Many Tory MPs were dismayed by what they were being asked to do: 13 rebelled against the whip. Others abstained, which means they refused to vote either way. But the party disciplinary system held together. It won the vote by 250 to 232.

Westminster is broken - New Statesman Westminster is broken - New Statesman

For many MPs, the moment of rebellion (during a vote) is traumatic. “It was horrible,” Lisa Nandy says. “You’re walking through the division lobby and your colleagues are swearing at you. These are people I’d been mates with.”Dunt began his career as a journalist for PinkNews. He then switched to political analysis for Yahoo!, before becoming Political Editor of Erotic Review, a position he held until January 2010, when he became editor of politics.co.uk. He regularly appears on TV, commenting on political developments in the United Kingdom. [7] When new members of Parliament enter the building, they are suddenly presented with an impossibly complex web of rules, conventions, precedents and demands that they have no experience of nor any training for. Former Special Advisers – spads – have an advantage, in that they know how Westminster works and how to navigate it. Former lawyers do too, because they can at least read legislation. The rest have no experience of what is happening at all. Lifestyle First Person I bought a house on a flood plain - don't make the same mistake as me Read More At this point, the whips will go into action. If the situation is desperate enough, they’ll sometimes resort to trying to manhandle MPs into voting for the party line. “I have literally seen people being physically pushed into the aye lobby or the no lobby,” MP Caroline Lucas says. “They’re still protesting, saying, ‘I’m not sure if I want to vote this way.’ And the whip pushes them in, because once you’re over the line, then the convention is you can’t reverse out again.” The parties organise little training. MPs are given no instruction in how to scrutinise or even read legislation, let alone introduce it. Most remain largely ignorant of parliamentary procedure throughout their time in Parliament, no matter how long they’re there. And this is not a failure by the political parties. It is a choice. If there is something they want, like support in a Commons vote, they make sure they get it. But it is simply not in their interests to tell MPs how Westminster works or what they’re supposed to do. Because if MPs are ignorant, they will rely on the whips to explain everything to them – to tell them where they need to be and what they need to do.