"We will bring forward early legislation to introduce a power of recall". Three years later, where is it?
By Paul Goodman
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It would certainly be wrong for minorities in constituencies to be able to hold majorities to ransom. But the key to avoiding this is to get the mechanism for recall right: the correct trigger for a petition, plus voters' hatred of by-elections, ought to be enough to see off unrepresentative challenges. The Government's draft bill on the right of recall proposed two different means. First, the MP in question should have been found by the courts "to have engaged in serious wrongdoing", in which case a petition signed by ten per cent of voters in his or her seat could trigger recall or, second, MPs themselves could vote for a recall petition to be opened in a particular case.
The Government's position on the draft bill is that it needs "to take the time to get this right. We will be publishing more detail about our proposals and will legislate when Parliamentary time allows.” But the Coalition Agreement promised "early legislation", and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Ministers simply want to kick the whole matter into the long grass - and, furthermore, that the draft bill's conclusions were roughly in the right territory. If the Commons endorses a Committee report concluding that an MP has broken Parliamentary rules, and ten per cen of voters in his constituency sign a petition for recall, there should be a by-election - in Newark or anywhere else.
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