THE COMMONS CONGA
FARCICAL SCENES AS MPS MADE TO JOIN LONG VOTING QUEUE
THERE were farcical scenes at the Houses of Parliament yesterday as MPs were forced to join a lengthy Alton Towers-style queue dubbed the ‘Mogg Conga’ to decide their voting method during the pandemic.
A line of socially-distanced MPs stretched for several hundred metres around the grounds for the vote that took a total of 46 minutes. It came after Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg announced the government was dropping procedures that allowed MPs to vote online.
Conservative Karen Bradley, who chairs the Procedure Committee, had proposed to keep remote voting in place in the coming weeks, with several Conservative MPs rebelling to support the proposal. This was defeated by 185 votes to 242.
Tory MP Nusrat Ghani tweeted: ‘ How very British. We could vote electronically and crack on with business in parliament or we can stand in queues.’ Her colleague Michael Fabricant called the system ‘an embarrassing shambles’.
Labour’s Ben Bradshaw tweeted that social distancing broke down as MPs were ‘stuck in a log jam’ at the bottom of a moving escalator in Portcullis House.
But MPs later approved the government’s plan to only allow votes in person.
It means those who have to shield, are caring for others, or who cannot reach parliament will be unable to vote in debates, although Mr Rees-Mogg said this would not mean they were ‘disenfranchised’.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and his officials were left shouting instructions at MPs who were required to queue two metres apart, walk through the Commons chamber and then announce their vote.
Some male MPs wore T-shirts and shorts in the chamber, others had face masks and some exited by the wrong door.
Mr Rees-Mogg said he would table a motion today that would allow MPs unable to attend Parliament on medical grounds to take part in certain proceedings. He admitted there would be ‘teething problems’ with the voting system, adding it would be ‘some time before our proceedings are fully restored’.
During the debate, Labour’s Chris Bryant joked: ‘Have you ever been to Alton Towers?’ Mr Rees-Mogg replied: ‘Indeed, yes I have, I took my sister Annunziata there many years ago.’
Shadow Commons leader Valerie Vaz asked if Mr Rees-Mogg was ‘living in another universe’ and questioned whether a risk assessment had been conducted for Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) parliamentary staff.
Raising a conversation she had with Tory MP Robert Halfon, who was advised by his doctor not to attend parliament for health reasons, she said: ‘The idea we decide today to disenfranchise him completely seems to me to be absurd.’
Caroline Nokes, Tory chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, called the measures ‘discriminatory’, towards MPs who were pregnant, new mothers and older MPs told not to use public transport.