Rees-Mogg calls for MPs to set example and go back to work
JaCoB Rees-Mogg told MPs yesterday he wants to see them return to Westminster within weeks to ‘set an example’ to the country.
The Commons leader said he did not want temporary arrangements – which have seen MPs join debates via webcam – extended beyond the Whitsun recess, due to start on May 20 and end on June 2.
He insisted that when MPs did return, they would only do so under strict social distancing rules.
Labour said this was a ‘surprise’, adding that ministers must provide evidence that they are taking into account the health needs of MPs.
The comments came on the day that MPs cast votes remotely for the first time in the history of Parliament.
During a debate on extending the measures that have allowed them to join debates via webcam, Mr Rees-Mogg said: ‘It is my expectation that I will not have to renew these temporary standing orders again.
‘It is clear that soon Parliament must set an example of how we move back gradually to a fully functioning country again. our constituents would expect nothing less.
‘So while we must move in step with public health guidance, it is vital that when we are asking other people to work and go to their places of work if they cannot do so from home, we should not be exempt from that. Indeed, we should be leading by example.’
Mr Rees-Mogg, who was criticised after he lay on the front bench in the Commons during a Brexit debate last September, praised the parliamentary authorities for setting up the system but said it had limitations and ‘restricts our ability to conduct effective scrutiny and to pass the volume of legislation required by the Government’.
a Labour spokesman said: ‘Today’s surprise announcement that ministers expect Parliament to return to business as usual in the next few weeks and end the successful hybrid virtual system flies in the face of the Government’s own public health advice and its message to work from home where possible.
‘The priority must be protecting the health and wellbeing of all those who work in Parliament. Ministers must publish the public health advice as a matter of urgency.’
Nationalist MPs have refused to return to Westminster until the Scottish Government says it is safe to do so.
Kirsty Blackman, the SNP deputy leader at Westminster, has said asking MPs to go back to London could put lives at risk. She added: ‘SNP MPs will continue to follow the clear guidance in Scotland to stay at home and save lives.
‘It has been shown that Westminster can operate with virtual sittings and that is how we will continue to hold the UK Government to account.
‘Enabling MPs to participate virtually is part of the new normal and the different rules in each nation must be respected, as recommended by the House of Commons procedure committee.
‘There is no need to increase the rate of infections and put lives at risk by encouraging MPs and staff to travel hundreds of miles back and forth to London from constituencies across the UK.’
‘Flies in the face of own advice’