LONDON — A wave of newly elected British MPs is colliding with centuries of parliamentary tradition — and pushing to dismantle some of Westminster’s most archaic ways of working.
From “bobbing” up and down to fire hazards, the country’s newest lawmakers are questioning quite why the heart of British democracy has to be this way.
The United Kingdom’s fresh Labour government acted quickly on entering office to set up a cross-party “modernization committee,” tasked with examining the British parliament’s inner workings and coming up with recommendations for change.
This month, it invited all those working on the parliamentary estate to offer their own submissions — and quickly found itself with no shortage of ideas.
In particular, MPs recently elected to the House of Commons — which boasts 335 newbies after July’s election — are taking aim at some of the legislature’s most established rules and conventions.
One source of frustration and bafflement for new MPs is the practice of “bobbing,” whereby they must briefly and repeatedly rise in their seats in order to catch the Commons speaker’s eye to be called to speak.
New Labour MP Chris Curtis said that, together with late sitting hours and time-consuming votes, it’s part of “a constant sense of frustration” that “tradition is standing in the way of MPs being able to either see their kids in the evening or do our job effectively.”
Stella Creasy, a longer-serving Labour MP who has campaigned for women’s rights in parliament, said Westminster could still “not claim to be a safe nor a family-friendly workplace, with the price for too many being their mental health, relationship with their kids or partner.”
A second new Labour MP, granted anonymity to speak frankly, argued that bobbing was “exclusionary” for MPs with limited mobility — while Green MP Ellie Chowns has complained it “is not an efficient or accessible way to form an orderly queue to speak.”
Instead, MPs are proposing the Commons should have a “call list” of the kind already employed by the House of Lords, where a list is published each day setting out who is going to speak and in what order.
Some would also like to see a reformed timetable, with earlier sitting hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and a return to digital voting, which was trialed during the Covid pandemic but later dropped.
The committee is facing further calls to consider changes to the definition of “disorderly” conduct, such as restrictions on what MPs can wear.
There are suggestions of “locum” MPs to temporarily cover those absent due to caring responsibilities or illness. And the committee is being urged to expand the independent system for making complaints about lawmakers’ conduct.
Risk of ‘a massive fire’
The modernization drive also looks set to reopen the fraught debate over what to do about the crumbling and dangerous Palace of Westminster.
Plans for major refurbishment of the estate are currently in limbo, with MPs due to decide between three options in early 2025. In the meantime, many new MPs have expressed horror at the condition of their workplace.
Curtis said that he and other colleagues are “often nervous about going into the office each day, given the chances of injury from falling masonry or a massive fire.”
However, a Cabinet minister, granted anonymity to speak about internal government discussions, damped down any expectation that the restoration of parliament could be brought forward. They said such a decision is “essentially down to the chancellor” Rachel Reeves and this “will not be at the top of her list.”
Lucy Powell, leader of the Commons and chair of the modernization committee, confirmed there had been “huge interest in this work so far especially from new MPs.”
She told POLITICO: “Supporting parents and those with other responsibilities to be effective and ensure parliament works for them is close to my heart and something I have long championed. A lot of progress has been made and there’s more still to do.”
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