After Parliament’s rare Saturday sitting to pass the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill with minimal scrutiny, we explore concerns about rushed legislation and unchecked ministerial powers. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle faces criticism for allegedly protecting Keir Starmer at PMQs. Meanwhile, as MPs and Peers move to block a possible Trump address to Parliament during his second UK State Visit, we discuss who controls invitations to speak and where on the parliamentary estate.
After an extraordinary Saturday recall of Parliament to rush through emergency legislation aimed at saving the steel industry, Ruth and Mark reflect on how scrutiny of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill was sacrificed for speed. No amendments were debated—let alone voted on—even though the Bill handed sweeping new powers to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
Meanwhile, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is under growing pressure. Critics accuse him of shielding Sir Keir Starmer by refusing to call outspoken backbenchers like Dianne Abbott and Rosie Duffield during Prime Minister’s Questions—even when they were central to the exchanges between the party leaders. Channelling Bond villain Auric Goldfinger, Mark quips that the first time may have been happenstance, the second coincidence, but a third could look suspiciously like enemy action.
Still, the Speaker showed little reaction when Kemi Badenoch claimed the Prime Minister “didn’t have the balls” to confront trans activists—remarks that would likely have earned an ordinary MP a swift rebuke. Will the Leader of the Opposition be quietly warned to mind her language?
And as MPs and Peers rally to block an address to Parliament by President Trump during his upcoming second State Visit, Ruth and Mark ask: who actually decides which foreign leaders can speak to MPs and Peers—and where? While there are doubts over whether Trump even wants to address Parliament, they argue that this is a moment for Westminster to show some solidarity with Congress.
Hansard Society
Brigid Fowler, Trump, State Visits and Parliament: precedent and process, 31 January 2017
Adddresses to both Houses of Parliament (last updated 3 December 2024)
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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. Coming up this week.
Ruth Fox: Should Westminster roll out the red carpet when Donald Trump arrives on a state visit later this year?
Mark D'Arcy: Light touch chairing or favoritism towards the government. Sir Lindsay Hoyle's conduct at PMQs comes under the microscope.
Ruth Fox: And total recall. MPs and Peers were wrenched away for the Easter holidays for a rare Saturday sitting to rush emergency legislation through Parliament.
Mark D'Arcy: But before we get onto that, Ruth, a little community note. Before [00:01:00] Easter in our last podcast, before the holiday break, we announced that we were going to have two podcasts. One, an interview with Simon Hart, the former Conservative Chief Whip which did indeed appear, and another looking at the intricacies of Report Stage as a kind of preview towards the Report Stage of the legislation to enable assisted dying in England and Wales. And, and that one we didn't deliver. And the reason was that although we recorded it, the facts kind of changed under us. Kim Leadbeater, the promoter of the bill, decided to postpone the Report Stage day.
It's now going to be on May the 16th. Uh, it was going to be today, Friday the 25th, as we are recording today, and we had our recording for today set in stone so we couldn't easily change the date by this stage. So we're coming out a day late for our regular podcast this week, but we will also be releasing an additional podcast updated and looking at the, uh, procedure for Report Stage so that we can get ahead of the assisted dying bill and the procedural intricacies that lie in wait for it.
Ruth Fox: Yeah. So look out, uh, listeners for that updated revised [00:02:00] podcast on report stage,
Mark D'Arcy: The revised standard version you might say.
Ruth Fox: Which will be coming out in a few days with our procedural guru, Paul Evans, as our guest.
Mark D'Arcy: But first, Ruth, while we were away, there was a pretty rare event, a recall of Parliament, not just to discuss some great and unexpected event, but also to rush through what wasn't quite emergency legislation, but was certainly extremely fast track, uh, legislation to semi nationalize what's left of Britain steel industry.
Ruth Fox: Yeah, well, I'm not sure. If it wasn't emergency legislation, what would be? Because, uh, the Government recalled parliament to consider the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill. The bill was only published 90 minutes before the debate started. They had three hours of debate, and this was a rare Saturday sitting.
It was only the fifth Saturday, uh, sitting, I think since the war. The last time Parliament was recalled to sit on a Saturday was during the Falklands War 1982. So there had been a Saturday sitting during the Brexit period, but that wasn't [00:03:00] around, uh, an actual recall. It's actually rarer to recall Parliament to consider legislation.
Yeah. You know, it's only happened a few times. We can only find two other examples when both Houses have been recalled to consider all stages of legislation in a day.
Mark D'Arcy: Yeah.
Ruth Fox: Not unusual for the Commons to do it. Rather rarer for the Lords to do it.
Mark D'Arcy: Yeah. So sometimes the, the Commons will zap through a piece of legislation in a day and then their Lordships will be a bit more discursive and take a couple of days and won't quite suspend their standing orders to the extent that the Commons does and their Lordships have a, a rather more deliberative approach to legislation pretty much any time.
Yeah. Even when it's supposedly emergency legislation. So to whack a whole bill through both Houses in a single day and get it to Royal Assent before the Houses then rise. Yeah, right. King Charles signs on the dotted line.
Ruth Fox: A hotline to wherever he was, Balmoral or Windsor, I'm not sure. I'm not sure where he was. I mean the last two times were the EU Future Relationship Bill back in 2020. That was New Year's Eve in anticipation of our exit from the EU. So that was, it was getting that deal through. [00:04:00] And then 1998, when they passed anti-terrorism legislation in response to the Omagh bombing.
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In our latest ‘Whipping Yarn’, we talk with Simon Hart, former Conservative Chief Whip during Rishi Sunak’s Premiership. Hart opens up about his time in one of Westminster’s most demanding and discreet roles, chronicled in his new book, ‘Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip’.
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