Constitutional principles under threat

THE COVID- 19 pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in Britain’s structures of government. But even before it struck, our constitutional democracy was slipping towards a crisis. We now face a collapse of public trust in government, severe damage to the rule of law and public administration, and the potential break- up of the United Kingdom.

The Prime Minister had already handed key areas of government to Dominic Cummings, who has made no secret of his contempt for MPs, Parliament and the civil service. His group of ‘ professional disruptors’ in No 10 – several of whom are not even members of the Conservative Party – give direct instructions to officials across Whitehall, bypassing Ministers. The Financial Times headlined an analysis of Cummings’ plans as ‘ The Smashing of the British State’.

After last year’s political confusion, the Conservative manifesto in December’s election promised to set up a Commission on the Constitution to tackle some of what it saw as the obstacles to strong government. The Government has now abandoned this promise. The Internal Market Bill, now in the Lords, is unconstitutional in several respects. It takes powers back from these three devolved governments, breaks the terms of a treaty that the Prime Minister signed 12 months ago, and gives extra powers to government at the expense of Parliament.

This may sound technical and legalistic to many readers. But Boris Johnson claims that the Bill is central to his vision of a Global Britain, negotiating trade and investment deals across the world. Riding roughshod over Scottish interests, while going back on agreements that maintain the peace in Northern Ireland, could lead instead both to Scottish independence and to Irish reunification, leaving England and Wales counting for much less on the world stage.

Meanwhile, the Government’s insistence that Parliamentary sovereignty overrides the rule of law has appalled judges and leading lawyers – already angry over last year’s attack on Supreme Court judges as ‘ enemies of the people’. Authoritarian governments in Poland and Hungary have attacked the independence of judges and the protection of citizens’ rights and property from state appropriation. But commitment to the rule of law has until now been one of the fundamental principles of Britain’s unwritten constitution.

Local government in England has been weakened by successive reorganisations and centralisation from London. When Covid- 19 struck, Johnson and Matt Hancock turned to outsourcing companies to manage the response, ignoring the expertise and local knowledge of councils and their staff.

Elected mayors and larger councils are being imposed on English counties, as in North Yorkshire. Opinion polls show higher levels of public trust in local government than in Downing Street, yet No 10 expects mayors and council leaders to follow instructions issued from London, without providing the money needed to fulfil them.

England, the dominant part of the UK, suffers from a two- party system entrenched by the voting system, in which both parties are badly divided. Labour under Sir Keir Starmer is recovering some of its balance, but remains dependent on left- wing unions for funding.

The Conservatives have now been captured by right- wing insurgents, expelling some of their most respected MPs last year. With a declining and elderly party membership, it’s become a central machine, financed by hedge funds and money from offshore tax havens, Russians and American billionaires.

Surges of support in local and European elections for Ukip, Lib Dem, Greens and the Brexit Party show popular discontent with the choices on offer. But when it comes to general elections, voters grit their teeth and back the party they least dislike.

Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, the driving forces in the Cabinet, saw the 80- seat majority they won last December as giving them power to take Parliament for granted and override constitutional restraints.

Whether the new generation of Tory MPs, particularly those from outside the prosperous and privileged South East, will accept the passive role left to them remains to be seen.

We must look to these representatives of Britain outside London to stand up for the constitutional principles which their party used to stand for but their government is betraying.