Tuesday Volume 524 1 March 2011 No. 123 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 1 March 2011 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2011 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through The National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/parliamentary-licence-information.htm Enquiries to The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 145 1 MARCH 2011 146 government boundaries, but ultimately they have to House of Commons deliver constituencies of more equal size. At the moment, constituencies can vary by over 50%, which is simply Tuesday 1 March 2011 not right. Recall of MPs The House met at half-past Two o’clock 2. Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con): What plans he has to introduce a power for electors in a PRAYERS constituency to recall their elected Member of Parliament. [42562] [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] 5. Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con): What plans he has to introduce a power for electors in a constituency Oral Answers to Questions to recall their elected Member of Parliament. [42566] 7. Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab): DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER When he plans to publish his proposals to allow electors in a constituency to recall their elected Member of Parliament. [42568] The Deputy Prime Minister was asked— The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg): The Parliamentary Constituencies Government are committed to bringing forward legislation to introduce a power to recall Members of Parliament. 1. Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con): What We are currently considering what would be the fairest, recent representations he has received on his proposals and most appropriate and robust, procedure, and we to create fewer and more equally sized constituencies. will make a statement soon setting out our plans to [42561] establish a recall mechanism. The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Mark Nadhim Zahawi: Will the Government’s proposals Harper): The last representation that I received on this provide a definition of serious wrongdoing, enabling matter was from Parliament, to say that the Parliamentary voters to know clearly what could trigger a recall? That Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 received is important in providing clarity about what voters Royal Assent on 16 February, and I am sure that many can do. Members of this House and the other place were grateful that it did. The Deputy Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is exactly right: that is precisely the kind of detail that we need to Gavin Barwell: Figures published by the Office for get right in the Bill. In some cases it is clear: if someone National Statistics last Wednesday showed that on is sentenced to prison for 12 months or more they are 1 December the Wirral—represented in this House by automatically disqualified already, under the present four Members of Parliament—had 239,000 electors, rules. There is certainly a case for removing that 12-month whereas my borough of Croydon, with just three MPs, cut-off line. If someone is imprisoned for any period, it had 243,000 electors. Can my hon. Friend tell me when seems to me that there is a strong case for disqualifying the boundary commissions will publish their draft proposals them. The key problem is when wrongdoings do not to deal with this shocking injustice? lead to a prison sentence, and that is exactly why we would want to engage the House authorities, to provide Mr Harper: My hon. Friend puts his finger on exactly a means by which they could be clearly proven. why it was necessary to have more equally sized constituencies across the country, so that voters will Chris Skidmore: In other countries that already have have equal weight when they cast their votes. He will a right of recall, there is a significant annual cost in know that the boundary commissions have to report having departments to administer public petitions. Has finally to Ministers by 1 October 2013. We expect that the Minister considered making an impact assessment they will set out their initial proposals some time this of the annual cost of introducing such a measure? year, but that is a matter for the independent boundary commissions. The Deputy Prime Minister: As my hon. Friend may know, we want the recall mechanism to be based on two Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab): simple steps: first, proof that wrongdoing has been Democratic Audit has said that equalising constituency committed, as I explained in answer to the previous sizes will lead to chaotic boundaries. Does the Minister question; and secondly, a petition by at least 10% of the think that the Deputy Prime Minister—or, to be more electors to trigger a by-election in the constituency precise, his immediate successor in 2015—will be happy concerned. That is slightly different from some of the representing not only parts of Fullwood and Broom models to which my hon. Friend referred, in California Hill, but Glossop, 20 miles away? and elsewhere, where there is a much more open-ended process. Mr Harper: I simply do not agree with the premise of the hon. Gentleman’s question. The 2011 Act provides Roberta Blackman-Woods: Can the Deputy Prime for a spread of plus or minus 5% of the quota, which is Minister tell the House whether he still believes that quite a significant number—around 8,000 electors—so MPs should be recalled for breaking their promises—and that the boundary commissions can take into account if he does, how many Liberal Democrat MPs does he all the traditional things, such as local ties and local expect would be subject to that system? 147 Oral Answers1 MARCH 2011 Oral Answers 148 The Deputy Prime Minister: The recall mechanism—as to take into account all the changes made to that supported, I think, in the manifestos of all three parties—is legislation in the later stages of its progress through for serious wrongdoing, as I explained in answer to Parliament. previous questions. Steve Rotheram: Although it appears that the Deputy Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab): I am not quite sure Prime Minister has calculated the cost of the changes in that that is right, is it? Did not the Liberal Democrat pound notes, he does not have a clue about the social manifesto say that people would be given the right to cost of his plans, which will lead to the fragmentation of sack MPs who had broken the rules? The question then communities as new constituencies cut through historical, is: who gets to decide who has broken the rules? If, as political and cultural boundaries simply to achieve his the right hon. Gentleman says, it is the courts, that is a arbitrary arithmetical norm. Does the Minister not fairly straightforward process. However, if it was left up wish that he had simply decoupled that part of the Bill to voters, might they not think that if someone promised to secure his miserable little compromise? 3,000 more police officers and then cut 10,000, or promised not to raise VAT and then put it up by 2.5%, they had Mr Harper: The reason why I gave the hon. Gentleman broken the rules? an answer in pounds was that his question was about the cost to the public purse, and I was answering that The Deputy Prime Minister: As I said before, wrongdoing question. has clearly been committed if someone is given a prison Steve Rotheram: But what is the real cost? sentence, and I think that any prison sentence of any length should disqualify MPs. Otherwise, we clearly Mr Harper: I do not agree with the premise of the need to establish a mechanism here in the House to hon. Gentleman’s question. There is a 10% margin, plus prove serious wrongdoing, and only once that has been or minus 5%, within which the independent boundary established would we grant electors the right, following commissions can take account of factors such as local a petition of 10% of the electors, to trigger a by-election— ties and local government boundaries, but it has to be [Interruption.] I think that the hon. Gentleman is asking right that constituencies should be more equal in size. from a sedentary position whether that mechanism In the part of the world that the hon. Gentleman should be without any kind of filtering here in the represents voters have more weight in the House of House. The honest truth is that if we did it like that, and Commons than they should, compared with those in had a sort of free-for-all, there would be a real danger other parts of the country, and that is simply not right. of a lot of vexatious and unjustified claims being made against one Member by others. Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP): Does the Minister not agree that holding a boundary review Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle) (Con): Will every five years will be a recipe for chaos and uncertainty, extreme care be taken in the drafting of the legislation given that the number of seats allocated in each country to ensure that in absolutely no circumstances will a within the United Kingdom could change in that period? recall of a Member of Parliament be possible because That would create great uncertainty among local electors, of the way in which a Member votes or speaks—however local authorities and local communities, who will not objectionably—or because he changes party, as Winston know what constituency they are going to be in.