Rule by diktat is a threat to our liberties

TESTABLISHED 1855 o be fair to Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary has hardly been shy about appearing in the Commons during the pandemic. He has answered questions at length and on many occasions about Government policies, albeit before a somewhat desultory chamber, where numbers have been restricted by social distancing. But many of his appearances and those of other ministers often take place after announcements have been made somewhere else. The Commons, supposedly the bastion of our liberties, has become a secondary forum to the news conference.

On Wednesday, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, upbraided Mr Hancock for having made a statement to MPS the previous day that made no mention of the restrictions on family gatherings announced by Boris Johnson at a No 10 news conference. Sir Lindsay said: “It is really not good enough for the Government to make decisions of this kind in a way that shows insufficient regard to the importance of major policy announcements being made first to this House and to Members of this House, wherever possible. The total disregard for this Chamber is not acceptable.”

We agree. This is not Mr Hancock’s responsibility alone, however, but that of the Prime Minister. The Commons has given the executive extensive emergency powers to take decisions in a fastmoving situation. But that was not the case here because the so-called “Rule of Six” restrictions announced by Mr Johnson do not take effect until next Monday. It is extraordinary that a legally enforceable ban on families meeting in their own homes – an egregious imposition on personal freedoms justified only in the most extreme circumstance – should be foist upon the nation by diktat without being debated in the Commons.

But MPS are also to blame. In his statement on Monday, Mr Hancock did allude to the new powers, saying that the Government “will urgently introduce further measures that put the current guidance – that people cannot socialise outside their household – into law”. While he did not spell out the details, not one MP asked him to.

Mr Hancock was back in the Commons yesterday, where several Conservatives made their unhappiness clear. Doubtless Parliament will back the Government’s action if there is a debate and vote, but that is not the point. The democratic procedures cannot just be tossed aside along with the nation’s liberties they are there to uphold.