Electing party leaders: who should decide? - Parliament Matters podcast

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Electing party leaders: who should decide? - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 48

11 Oct 2024

©Jacob Groet/CCHQ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The Conservative leadership race is heating up, but should MPs alone choose their leader? Should MPs who resign their party's whip face by-elections? On 29 November, MPs are expected to debate the controversial 'assisted dying' bill - will it stymie other Private Members’ Bills? Meanwhile, Nigel Farage is pushing for a parliamentary debate and vote on the government's deal regarding the Chagos Islands. Will he get his way?

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In this episode, we dive into the high-stakes Conservative leadership contest. As party members face a pivotal decision, we ask whether MPs alone should have the final say in choosing their leader. We also explore Sir Graham Brady’s proposal for Conservative MPs to vote on the final two candidates, giving an indication of their preferred choice to party members. Would this approach bring clarity or add even more confusion to the leadership race?

Next, we turn to the dramatic resignation of Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who resigned the Labour whip just three months into this Parliament. In her scathing resignation letter, Duffield criticised Keir Starmer’s leadership and Labour’s internal policies. Her departure raises significant questions: should MPs who resign the whip be required to step down from Parliament and contest a by-election? Or should they face a recall petition from their constituents? We also reflect on past instances where MPs resigned the whip early in a new Parliament and the impact this has on their ability to represent their voters.

We then focus on the Government’s announcement of the 13 Fridays when the House of Commons will sit to consider Private Members’ Bills. The debate on Kim Leadbeater’s ‘assisted dying’ bill is likely to be scheduled for 29 November. Will this bill dominate parliamentary time and push other Private Members’ Bills to the sidelines? We explore the potential procedural roadblocks that could hinder the bill’s progress and how similar issues have been managed in the past.

Nigel Farage has led calls in the House of Commons for a debate on the future of the Chagos Islands. The government’s decision to transfer sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius while retaining control of the US base on Diego Garcia has raised both sovereignty and treaty scrutiny concerns. We discuss how this case once again exposes the limitations of Parliament’s oversight of international treaties and what might happen next.

Finally, we answer listener questions on a range of topics, from the role of All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) and the upcoming Budget to the tradition of MPs “bobbing” to catch the Speaker’s attention at Prime Minister’s Questions and the complexities of statutory consultation processes.

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What we talked about on this episode

Should MPs or party members choose the leader of the Conservative Party and potential Prime Minister?
Should MPs who switch parties or resign the whip be required to call a by-election to seek fresh electoral approval?
What procedural hurdles might thwart the ‘assisted dying’ Private Members' Bill?
At what stage might the Government intervene to facilitate consideration by MPs of the ‘assisted dying’ Private Members’ Bill?
Will MPs have an opportunity to debate and vote on the Chagos Islands agreement?
Why is parliamentary scrutiny of treaties so weak?
Dame Meg Hillier is proposing a new Commons committee to consider urgent public spending decisions: why and what would it do?
What will happen with the Intelligence and Security Committee?

'Urgent questions' from listeners

Will the Budget be kept under wraps or leaked to the media?
Why do MPs “bob up and down” as if to catch Mr Speaker’s eye during Prime Minister’s Questions?
Are “full-blown” statutory consultations necessary? Is there a better way to consult?
What role will All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) play in this new Parliament? To what extent are APPGs a problem?

Resources

Hansard Society

House of Commons Library

MPs’ changes of party allegiance in the House of Commons since 1979

House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee

Assisted Dying/Assisted Suicide: Second Report of Session 2023-24

Transcript

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. There are consequently minor errors and the text is not formatted according to our style guide. If you wish to reference or cite the transcript copy below, please first check against the audio version above.

Intro: [00:00:00] You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm

Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox.

Mark D'Arcy: And I'm Mark D'Arcy.

Ruth Fox: Coming up. As the Conservative leadership contest reaches fever pitch, should MPs alone choose their party leader?

Mark D'Arcy: It looks like the Commons will debate a bill on assisted dying on the 29th of November, but will that controversial legislation crowd out all the other private members bills this year?

Ruth Fox: And the row over the Chagos Islands exposes Parliament's weakness when it comes to scrutinising treaties with other countries.

Mark D'Arcy: But first Ruth, let's talk about the Tory leadership [00:01:00] contest. I don't really want to get into the kind of micro politics or whether MPs were too clever by half in the way they voted. And all the rest of it. The Conservative MPs have now had a series of ballots to eliminate candidates until there were just two left to present to the party membership.

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