DON’T THROW PARLIAMENTARY TRADITIONS AWAY

MPS are hunting for a new berth after deciding to quit Parliament for at least six years to allow a £4billion refurbishment of the dilapidated building to proceed uninterrupted. Following a Commons debate on Wednesday they voted by a majority of just 16 to go ahead with “a full and timely decant of the Palace” rather than trying to carry on amid the works.

The decision dismayed traditionalists who would have preferred to maintain the continuity of the UK’s seat of democracy by switching Commons sittings to the House of Lords.

Potential temporary accommodation for the Commons – which sits an average of 146 days a year – identified so far are the nearby QE2 Conference Centre and Church House. Another option, of erecting a new structure in a courtyard at the Department of Health, is being discounted after planning measurements proved to be inaccurate.

Church House next to Westminster Abbey staged some parliamentary sessions when the chamber was bombed during the Second World War with the then prime minister Winston Churchill announcing the sinking of the Bismarck and the loss of HMS Hood there in 1941. That option might at least provide some continuity with Westminster’s history.

Yet concern is growing that the looming exile, scheduled for after 2022, could permanently demolish many ancient parliamentary customs. MPs are talking about using the opportunity of new surroundings to try innovative ways of functioning to make life easier.

Electronic voting by pressing a button or even using a mobile phone app was raised as a possibility during the spell away from Westminster as any temporary accommodation is unlikely to come with division lobbies for MPs to tramp through. Other examples of parliamentary flummery are unlikely to make sense in a functional modern building.

It is difficult to see the daily Speaker’s Procession taking place in the drab corridors of a conference centre built in the 1980s. Once customs are abandoned for temporary expediency MPs could be unwilling to revive them on their eventual return to Westminster.

Care needs to be taken to preserve the symbols of Britain’s democratic roots. MPs must ensure their temporary stay elsewhere does not put a permanent end to parliamentary tradition.