By Jonathan Isaby
26th January 3.30pm update:
It's official; David Cameron told the Commons at PMQs and here is the formal notice from the Treasury:
Gerry Adams has been appointed to an office of profit under the Crown* in order that he could vacate the seat he won but never took in the Commons.
Sinn Fein had attempted to avoid this. UTV quoted their spokesman as saying earlier in the week:
"We couldn't give a toss [about these rules]. He's not going to apply for these offices. He has sent in a resignation letter like any ordinary person. We want a byelection in West Belfast. There's no written constitution; they just make it up anyway. It's strange men who parade around in tights. Republicans are not losing any sleep over this."
But as John Bercow told the Commons yesterday:
"There are procedures to be observed, and observed they must be."
The questions now is: who by tradition, moves the writ for a by-election, and when, if there is no sitting MP in the Commons from the party of the outgoing MP? The precedent is the second by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone of 1981, following the death of Bobby Sands, but I cannot pinpoint the Hansard reference...
* Nick Watt of the Guardian has a statement from Adams claiming he never applied for the office of profit under the Crown.
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In what was a busy day politically, it may have ecaped your notice that Gerry Adams - who did of course never take his seat at Westminster - yesterday resigned as MP for Belfast West. This he has done in order to contest a seat at the Irish general election on March 11th, the BBC reported.
Although I'm not sure who will move the writ (given that there is no member of Sinn Fein in the Commons to do so, and usually - though not always - it is someone from the sitting MP's party who does so), it will prompt a by-election in what is one of the safest seats in the United Kingdom.
At the general election, Adam held it with a majority of 17,579 over the SDLP candidate. The DUP trailed in third with 7.6% of the vote, with the UCUNF candidate losing his deposit with 3.1% of the vote.
