If any evidence was needed to highlight Labour’s lackluster approach to reforming the House of Commons, then look no further than a Written Ministerial Statement made by Harriet Harman earlier today.
In her statement she admitted that the government will prevent important reforms being made to the House of Commons before the general election.
Specifically she confirmed that MPs will be prevented from voting on all of the reforms proposed by the Committee on Reform of the House of Commons; key recommendations will be watered down including the Committees recommendation that members of Select Committees be elected and the establishment of a Backbench Business Committee.
Shockingly Labour’s Leader in the House also confirmed that a single MP could still block any of these reforms from being implemented in time for the general election.
Ms Harman said that the government only backs 21 of the recommendations made by the Committee “The Government fully supports 21 of the recommendations and conclusions in the report and has tabled 16 motions which are required to give effect to these recommendations.”
But there are 50 recommendations in the Wright Report. Key recommendations that the Government is not allowing to be voted on include:
* Greater Opposition say on when Opposition days are taken;
* Greater access for Select Committees to the House agenda;
* Provision of sufficient time for debate at report stage and on Lords amendments;
* Adoption of a House Business Committee.
Sir George Young, Shadow Leader of the House, has written to Harriet Harman asking her urgently to reconsider the Government’s approach to the Committee’s report and ensure that the House of Commons can put in place a package of reforms before the election.
In a letter to Ms Harman, Sir George Young said: “In the week in which Gordon Brown is blatantly trying to rig the electoral system to his own advantage, he is blocking crucial reforms to strengthen our democracy recommended by a Committee he himself set up.
“We could have spent two days this week making progress with the Wright reforms, using today plus the extra day in the motion we have tabled to postpone the recess.
“We can’t go on like this. Only a Conservative government will take the decisive action to fix our broken Parliament.”
Read Sir George Young’s letter in full HERE
