The pairing debacle: outrage at Westminster

Parliament has many bizarre conventions, said Zoe Williams in The Guardian. You are allowed to “honk like a goose” while another MP is speaking, but not use his or her name. You can accuse a colleague of “misspeaking”, but never of “lying”. Free snuff is provided by the Commons doorkeeper. But if you want to take a right as basic as maternity leave, you have to rely on an arcane procedure known as “pairing”. This means that pairs of MPS on opposing sides agree not to vote so that an absence, whether because of maternity leave, illness or travel problems, is cancelled out. But it is only a “gentleman’s agreement”, which rests on trust. And that trust can be abused. Last week, it seems Julian Smith, the Conservative chief whip, faced with a close vote on a rebel amendment calling for the UK to stay in the customs union, told several Tory MPS to break their pairings. Only one did: the party chairman, Brandon Lewis, who was paired with Jo Swinson, a Lib Dem. Swinson, who had recently given birth, was understandably furious.

This may sound like a “Westminster bubble story”, said Andrew Grice in The Independent. But it matters. Admittedly, whips are expected to be Machiavellian. In the past, they kept “black books” of rumours about MPS with which to blackmail them into compliance; even today, more subtle threats are commonly used. Yet Smith’s actions were widely considered “beyond the pale”. Many MPS, Tories included, were outraged. Theresa May had to apologise to the Commons, claiming, rather unconvincingly, that “the breaking of the pair was done in error”. Smith is lucky that Lewis’s vote didn’t affect the result: the Government won by six votes. But the pairing system is vital to the integrity of our democracy, and it must be respected. “If pairing breaks down, parliamentary votes become about the survival of the fittest – literally,” said Helen Lewis in The Observer. In the late 1970s, the opposing whips lost trust in each other, and “sick and dying MPS had to be wheeled through the division lobbies whenever there was a possibility of a government defeat”. Labour’s Joe Harper postponed emergency surgery so he could vote. “He died in office.” These antiquated procedures must be reformed, said The Independent. It’s absurd that absent MPS can’t cast proxy votes. “There will be many more tight votes in the coming months, and much opportunity for arm-twisting, sharp practice and shenanigans on all sides.” The Commons owes it to the voters “to make sure that it at least looks honest in its dealings”.