{"id":2436,"date":"2019-02-28T12:19:41","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T12:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=2436"},"modified":"2022-06-17T17:02:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T17:02:14","slug":"is-the-current-political-climate-giving-small-parties-a-stronger-voice-in-the-house-of-commons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=2436","title":{"rendered":"Is the current political climate giving small parties a stronger voice in the House of Commons?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Speaking in the chamber is a challenge for any MP. However keen you are to give a speech on an issue, there is no guarantee that you will be called by the Speaker. Traditionally, smaller parties have faced challenges when trying to get airtime in the House of Commons. But is there evidence that is changing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little time\nto speak<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this\nyear, Members of Parliament filled the House of Commons for a six\nhour debate<\/a> on the no-confidence motion in the government that the\nLabour party had tabled. Once speeches had been made by the leader of the opposition,\nthe prime minister and the SNP\u2019s Westminster leader Ian Blackford, there were\njust four hours remaining for backbench MPs to make their contributions. If we\ntake out the winding up speeches made by Michael Gove and Tom Watson, this\nfalls to just three and a half hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 57 backbench speeches were made; impressive given the short length of the debate, but less impressive given that there are 650 MPs in total, many more of whom will have wished to be heard. As she finished her four minute speech<\/a>, Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts described how \u201cas a member of a small party who usually has very little time to speak” and that she was aware “how valuable the time we have is\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large number\nof the two largest parties will usually be called to speak in debates. This is\nbecause the Speaker must seek to balance contributions made by MPs in\nproportion to the party balance of the House. In most debates therefore, when\nthe government minister, the shadow minister and the SNP frontbench\nspokesperson have made a speech, there will be much to-ing and fro-ing between\nConservative and Labour backbenchers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some MPs from\nsmaller parties accept this as the usual state of play, but others are more\nfrustrated by their lack of debating time. The SNP, for instance, got\ninto an argument<\/a> with Lindsay Hoyle during the committee stage of\nthe EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill back in 2017 following what they felt\nwere constraints on their speaking time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nno-confidence debate in detail<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In total, 29 Conservative backbenchers and 19 Labour backbenchers were called to speak in the no-confidence debate. With only 61 of the 650 MPs, it seems only right that the majority of speeches come from the Conservative and Labour benches. After all, they represent 88 per cent of seats in the chamber (even more if you exclude the Sinn Fein MPs who do not take their seats and the Speake and Deputy Speakers). The other five political parties with seats in the Commons made just 8 backbench speeches between them. That\u2019s eight speeches from a pool of 61 MPs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fig.1 Speeches made during no confidence debate <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Fig.2: Speaking time by party in the no confidence debate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It might not\nsound like a lot, but in this debate (regardless of whether we look at the\nnumber of speakers or the time these speakers were able to hold the floor for) the\nsmaller parties were actually getting their fair share of contributions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, they\ncould have received even more than their fair share. Figures 1 and 2 show that the\nlarger parties were the more disadvantaged. This is perhaps because the\nimportance of the topic at hand and the heightened political atmosphere made it\nmore imperative than normal for the Speaker to call representatives from all\nparties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can see\nthis, as Vince Cable was called to speak for the Liberal Democrats very early\non, shortly followed by the DUP\u2019s Nigel Dodds. As a representative of the\nsmallest party, Caroline Lucas was (as the only Green MP) the final opposition\nparty to be called to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not\nreally the norm. In other debates, such as second readings of government bills,\nor debates on government statements to the House, the small parties are\nunlikely to all be called in this way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are smaller\nparties being given a bigger platform?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the last\nfew months we\u2019ve seen examples of the smaller opposition parties being given a\nbigger say in parliament than they ever have before. The defeat of the prime minister\u2019s\nBrexit deal in parliament during the so called \u2018meaningful vote\u2019 just a few\nweeks ago led to cross-party talks in which the leaders of all the opposition\nparties, including Caroline Lucas, met with the prime minister<\/a>\nto discuss progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together these\nsmaller parties have put forward amendments to the government\u2019s motion which\nwill be debate in parliament next week. In her statement to the house following\nthe meaningful vote defeat, the prime minister said that, in accordance with\nthe guidelines expressed in Erskine May, the government would give time for a\ndebate and vote should Jeremy Corbyn seek to table a motion of no-confidence in\nthe government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Significantly\nthough, she also added that if he did not do so, she would \u2018on\nthis occasion<\/a>\u2019 make time for a debate on a motion tabled by the\nother opposition parties. The small parties had\ntabled a joint motion<\/a> in December following Labour\u2019s incorrectly\nworded motion, but no time had been found to debate it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combination of the heightened political atmosphere, the ticking Brexit clock and the government\u2019s vulnerability in the Commons has enhanced the importance of the smaller opposition parties. Over the coming weeks and months they will likely have both a stronger presence and a greater voice in the Commons chamber.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking in the chamber is a challenge for any MP. However keen you are to give a speech on an issue, there is no guarantee that you will be called by the Speaker. Traditionally, smaller parties have faced challenges when trying to get airtime in the House of Commons. But is there evidence that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":2440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1395,1405,1396],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1585],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-comment","category-government","category-uk"],"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Is-the-current-political-climate-giving-small-parties-a-stronger-voice-in-the-House-of-Commons-kyle-johnston-448680-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}