NEW BLOG🧵(1/14)
@CommonsProcCom Chair Karen Bradley argues that the system of proxy votes + in-person voting for MPs during the pandemic is flawed & puts parliament at risk
Ahead of a debate today, she proposes a temporary return to remote divisions
constitution-unit.com/2020/09/23/req…
2/14: The Commons Procedure Committee last week published its report on proxy voting in the House; today MPs will vote on whether to continue to permit its use for baby leave, and will consider proxies as a means of managing COVID-related absences.
3/14: Although the pilot scheme for baby leave did not satisfy everyone, the Procedure Committee concluded that it had worked well, and the motion to be debated today proposes to make that system permanent.
4/14: Pandemic-related proxy voting was brought in by ministers with little advance consideration or debate; a ‘flawed quick fix’ forcing officials to scale up the system far beyond the number of proxies and scope it had been designed for.
5/14: The majority of proxy votes have been cast by the whips of the three largest parties. This makes the scheme more manageable, but is not in keeping with the House’s practice and tends to concentrate more influence in the hands of business managers.
6/14: A system of mass proxy voting has therefore been ‘bolted on’, as part of the fourth voting system of the current parliament, compared to the almost 190-year old system of the previous parliament.
7/14: The current lobby voting system adjusted for the pandemic is unnecessary and 'unsafe', and the technology has not operated perfectly. Even with the right equipment, voting conditions remain ‘unsafe’.
8/14: ‘No-one who has queued up to vote in a division recently can possibly claim that social distancing is being scrupulously observed’; backbenchers form ‘a moving line of several hundred yards’ and must try to disperse safely after passing the tellers.
9/14: A cluster of cases spread via the division line would undermine the hard work of the parliamentary authorities to make the estate safe, and jeopardise support for the House’s core functions.
10/14: Karen Bradley has therefore tabled an amendment to today's government motion that would require ministers to bring alternative proposals for conducting divisions to the House for debate and decision, which ‘ought to include the reinstatement of remote divisions’.
11/14: Bradley argues that this is a matter for the Commons, and that ‘no party should be imposing a whip on this issue, formally or informally’. She urges her colleagues to ‘use the opportunity to make their views clear to the government’.
12/14: The Commons, and the Procedure Committee, are divided on the issue of returning to remote divisions. A majority of the Committee was in favour and even those who disagreed ‘recognised that remote voting would have to be considered again if lockdown conditions returned’.
13/14: Since new restrictions are now a real possibility, she concludes by calling on MPs to ‘take the opportunity to demand voting arrangements which are safer and more inclusive.’
14/14: The Procedure Committee’s report can be found here: committees.parliament.uk/work/120/proxy…
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