A chaotic ‘conga’ to vote in the Commons
VIRTUAL sittings in the Commons were scrapped last night after a chaotic “conga” of MPs queued for nearly a mile to cast their vote.
The Government faced furious claims that shielding politicians and those who live furthest from parliament are being stripped of their vote.
But the changes were passed with a comfortable majority, despite “Alton Towers” style queues round the parliamentary estate as MPs maintained social distancing.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle repeatedly barked orders to “keep up” but the vote still took three times longer than usual.
Former Tory Cabinet minister Karen Bradley, who chairs the Procedure Committee, was behind a bid to keep electronic voting in place in the coming weeks and several Conservative MPs rebelled to support it. But the Government saw it off with a comfortable majority.
Urgent
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said he would table a motion today that will allow MPs unable to attend on medical grounds to take part in certain proceedings, including questions, urgent questions and ministerial statements.
MPs later approved the Government’s motion to only allow them to vote in person by 261 votes to 163, majority 98. Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Lots of people are going back to work and we have a role as leaders within the country and within the community to do that.
“The stopgap of a hybrid Parliament was a necessary compromise during the peak of the virus, but by not being here the House has not worked effectively on behalf of constituents.
“It is important for votes to be physical because we are coming here together as a single Parliament and we are voting on things that have a major effect on people’s lives.”
Tory Sir Christopher Chope said MPs unable to attend would be able to use the traditional system of pairing – where another party agrees to stand down one of their MPs to avoid unfairness.