Attack of the Commons zombie slayers
Labour and Tories join forces in war on fixed-term parliaments left with nothing to do
CROSS-PARTY anger at Westminster’s ‘zombie Parliament’ was last night raging amid claims the Commons has virtually nothing to do before the General Election.
MPs vented their fury at Coalition Ministers for insisting on a fixed, five-year parliament when they ran out of ideas ‘six months ago’.
Labour said there was now so little legislation to discuss that Tory backbenchers were only expected to turn up at Westminster for barely a month between now and the Election on May 7.
Even Conservative MPs are concerned. Tory MP Charles Walker, chairman of the Commons Procedure Committee, said: ‘There’s a natural rhythm to British politics that has served us well for decades and it’s a four-year rhythm. I’d prefer to do away with the whole idea of fixed terms.’
In a controversial move after the last General Election, the Tory/Liberal Democrat Coalition pushed through a new law that parliaments must last a full five years except in exceptional circumstances.
This was seen as an attempt by David Cameron and Nick Clegg to prevent rebel MPs voting with Labour to boot the fragile Coalition out of office.
But MPs across the political divide are now complaining that the fifth year has become one long ‘anteroom’ to the Election – with the Commons all but devoid of serious Government business to discuss.
In an article for The Mail on Sunday, below, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jonathan Ashworth said the Coalition was presiding over a zombie Parliament with little sign of Government activity. Tory MPs, he said, had effectively been told to turn up for only 33 days between now and when Parliament is dissolved for the Election.
Mr Ashworth stopped short of saying that a Labour government would scrap the five-year rule. But two other senior Shadow Ministers privately said that Parliament should sit for four years at most.
Labour backbench MP Kevin Barron called for a return to the rule where prime ministers were able to name the date of the Election, but no Parliament could sit for more than five years. The current situation at Westminster had led to a ‘paralysis of power’, he said. No10 last night denied the Coalition had run out of steam, saying it was making ‘good progress’ with its legislative programme of 18 Government Bills this parliamentary session.