From the emotional weight of the Assisted Dying Bill’s historic Second Reading to the first Cabinet resignation under Keir Starmer’s leadership, this has been a whirlwind week of high-stakes drama and political intrigue in Westminster. Nearly three million people have signed a parliamentary e-petition calling for another general election and it’s been a week of party defections and divisions. We unpack what it all means for the future of this Parliament.
This week saw MPs engage in a solemn and respectful debate over landmark legislation. The Assisted Dying Bill cleared its Second Reading with a decisive majority of 55 votes, but the solemn silence that greeted the announcement of the result in the House of Commons reflected the gravity of the decision. There is still a long way to go if the Assisted Dying Bill is to make it to the statute book, but it cleared this first hurdle. So, what happens now as it moves into the Public Bill Committee?
Meanwhile, a petition calling for a general election has amassed nearly three million signatures. It has sparked a debate and perhaps tells us something about public discontent with the current Government after just six months. But it has also revealed the constitutional illiteracy of some of our politicians and the commentariat. Despite its size, this petition holds no legal weight, though it will trigger a House of Commons debate in January having crossed the 100,000 signature threshold. What approach will the Government take?
In other news, Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet saw its first resignation this week as Transport Secretary Louise Haigh stepped down. The move came after a past offence - declared to Starmer before her appointment - resurfaced. We unpack the implications for the Government’s ethics bar: has it been set too low, or is this the high standard needed to rebuild public trust in politicians and Parliament?
Hansard Society
Event recording: The Assisted Dying Bill: How will Parliament decide? Exploring the parliamentary process (Tuesday 26 November)
Anna Bocking-Welch, Richard Huzzey, Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Henry Miller (2024), What’s the point of petitions? What the last century reveals about petitioning and people power in modern Britain
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[00:00:00] Intro: You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm.
[00:00:18] Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox.
[00:00:24] Mark D'Arcy: And I'm Mark Darcy, coming up this week.
[00:00:27] Ruth Fox: The bill to legalise assisted dying clears its first hurdle in the commons, so what happens now?
[00:00:33] Mark D'Arcy: Could, should, a petition with millions of signatures force a government to resign and call an election?
[00:00:39] Ruth Fox: Spoiler, no. Plus, Sir Kier Starmer's first cabinet resignation, Tory defections and Liberal splits in an eventful Westminster week.
[00:00:56] Mark D'Arcy: But first Ruth, we've delayed the pod a day, precisely so that we can take in the result of MP's first chance to vote on the Terminally Ill Adult (End of Life) Bill, the assisted dying bill as it's generally referred to. You can, incidentally, still hear the buzzing of the helicopter, which, for reasons that pass all understanding, the BBC and Sky have orbiting Parliament at the moment to get aerial shots of the building during this important debate.
[00:01:21] Heaven only knows why they bother to do that, but they do. So apologies in advance for the buzzing you can hear in the background. But that's the least of today's events. It's been an extremely interesting debate. Conducted in a very, very serious manner. It was quite noticeable, for example, that when Mr Speaker read out the totals voting for and against the Bill, there wasn't a great erupting cheer to celebrate the victory that the Bill had cleared its second reading.
[00:01:46] It was far too serious an occasion for that. And now the Bill goes off for further consideration in a Public Bill Committee, and starts its journey through the elaborate machinery of Parliament.
[00:01:57] Ruth Fox: Yeah, I was struck as you were by that moment when they announced the result. It was not quite as close as I thought it might be.
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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’.
If a crisis or major national event occurs during a period when Parliament is adjourned, there are often demands from MPs, the media and the public for Parliament to be ‘recalled’. But the House of Commons Standing Orders stipulate that only Government Ministers - in reality, the Prime Minister - can ask the Speaker to recall the House. In recent years the House of Lords has generally been recalled at the same time as the House of Commons.
In response to the Modernisation Committee's call for views on 17 October 2024, we submitted evidence outlining key areas we believe the Committee should prioritise. Our submission recommended a focus on: strengthening legislative scrutiny, with particular emphasis on reforming the delegated legislation system; enhancing financial scrutiny, especially in relation to the Budget and the Estimates; addressing strategic gaps in parliamentary scrutiny; making more effective use of parliamentary time; and reviewing the Standing Orders, language and rituals of the House of Commons.
This briefing explains what to watch for during the Second Reading debate of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 29 November. It outlines the procedural and legislative issues that will come into play: the role of the Chair in managing the debate and how procedures such as the 'closure' and 'reasoned amendments' work. It looks ahead to the Committee and Report stage procedures that will apply if the Bill progresses beyond Second Reading. It also examines the government's responsibilities, such as providing a money resolution for the Bill and preparing an Impact Assessment, while addressing broader concerns about the adequacy of Private Members’ Bill procedures for scrutinising controversial issues.
In this ninth instalment of our special mini-podcast series, we continue to explore the latest developments in the progress of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, often referred to as the assisted dying bill. We are joined by Dr Marie Tidball MP to discuss the amendments she has secured for a Disability Advisory Board and an independent advocate for people with learning disabilities.
