LET PUBLIC BALLOT BOOT OUT LAZY PARLIAMENTARIANS

LAZY MPs will not be forced to mend their idle ways, Jacob Rees-Mogg has confirmed.

At a Committee hearing on Wednesday, Labour’s Chris Elmore suggested Parliament’s standards watchdog should investigate claims of MPs “not doing their job fully”.

He said reports of parliamentarians failing to deal with constituency matters or take part in debates and votes risked worsening Westminster’s reputation.

But Mr Rees-Mogg signalled the Government will not press for any monitoring of MPs’ output.

The Commons leader asked: “What do you do with a completely idle Member of Parliament? Ultimately that is something that must be decided at the ballot box.

“It is not a code of conduct issue how a member decides to run his, or her office.”

Mr Rees-Mogg is known to be assiduous in attending to his constituency and ministerial duties. The languid demeanour suggested by his now-abandoned habit of reclining along the Government frontbench belies a feverish work rate.

Not all his contemporaries in the Commons are as hard working, although it is some time since anyone has matched up to the reputation for indolence acquired by the late Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell.

Famously branded Britain’s laziest MP, he failed to hold a constituency surgery for 14 years and had one of the lowest voting records in the Commons.

Mr Rees-Mogg was correct to point out that MPs are judged at election time. Backbenchers have no job description or achievement targets. It is for each MP to do their job in the way they see fit and for the employers – the electorate – to judge their performance.

Westminster should always answer to the ballot box rather than human resources-style tick-box exercises.