By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. 8.30pm Update: I have been through the ayes and noes, and have found the following Tory abstainers: Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty) John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) Bill Cash (Stone) Rehman Chisti (Gillingham and Rainham) Christopher Chope (Christchurch) James Clappison (Hertsmere) Alan Duncan (Rutland and Melton) – a DfID […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Business Questions – as in Business of the House, rather than commerce – is becoming a good session of the House to watch. For Labour, the hyper-partisan Angela Eagle always seems to want to provoke Sir George Young. But Sir George is unflappable. The latest example came on Thursday. Ms […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter One of the great reforms of this Coalition has been the creation of the Backbench Business Committee (BBBC). The Committee has forced debates on topics as diverse as Europe, voting rights for prisoners, banning circus animals, and cuts to petrol prices. It has caused trouble for both the Government and […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Parliament sits again today following the Christmas break, and will be considering some important legislation during January, including: Local Government Finance Bill Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims (Amendment) Bill Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill Wind Turbines (Minimum Distances from Residential Premises) Bill Scotland Bill Welfare Reform […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Sir George Young, the Leader of the House of Commons, did something rather admirable yesterday: he rejected the knee-jerk tendency, seen during the New Labour years in particular, to pass legislation at every possible opportunity. During Business Questions, Sir George announced that the Second Reading of the Local Government Finance Bill […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter Proposals to give Parliament the power to take action on ministers who leak announcements to the media, before informing the Commons, have failed. The motion tabled by Phillip Hollobone MP (Kettering), aimed to be as "non-partisan as possible", was defeated by 228 votes to 119. Hollobone accused all three major parties of […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. As of this morning the e-petitions site is live. Petitions that attract 100,000 signatures will be considered by the new backbench business committee for debate. 'Considered' is the important word. Even petitions that are vetoed for being offensive or trivial have no guarantee of Commons time. Should ConservativeHome and […]
By Jonathan Isaby After the intensity of and the interest in the debate on Libya yesterday, another motion on the order paper – which would have created huge media interests were it not for international events – was quietly passed after a short debate. It was on the thorny issue of MPs' pay and, contrary […]
By Jonathan Isaby Yesterday saw Gerry Adams appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead – an office of profit under the Crown that therefore disqualifies him from remaining an MP. But a row has broken out over how the appointment was made. A Sinn Fein spokesman said earlier in the week that it […]
By Jonathan Isaby The week before Christmas the Daily Telegraph ran a series of pieces quoting remarks made by Lib Dem ministers to two of its journalists posing as constituents at their surgeries. I made my views clear at the time. Today at the first Business Questions since the appearance of the articles, Commons Leader […]
Sir George Young is Leader of the House of Commons and MP for North West Hampshire. The Backbench Business Committee was one of the most innovatory ideas to emanate in the last Parliament from the Committee on Commons Reform – widely known as the Wright Committee, after its chairman the former Labour MP Tony Wright, […]