It is pure folly to reduce the number of MPs
Craig Prescott 11.58am
At the last general election, both coalition parties pledged to reduce the size of the House of Commons. The Conservatives offered a 10 per cent reduction (manifesto is oddly no longer available online), while the Lib Dems (link here) wanted to cut the number of MPs by 150. The eventual Coalition Agreement is actually weaker than both parties’ original pledges, as Parliament will only be trimmed by 50 MPs from its current level of 650.
This 600 figure was created by the negotiating teams during those ‘Five Days in May’. That episode revealed one of the worst aspects of our unwritten constitution: essentially, just six chaps in a room determined how many MPs will sit in the main chamber of our national legislature. In most other countries in the world the number of seats in the legislature is defined in a constitution - in the USA, each state is allocated two Senators - and the process of changing this is considerably more laborious than chatting over some tasty biscuits.
There is no underlying rationale for this reduction. For the Liberal Democrats it was part of a grander constitutional scheme, the only part of which that may emerge is House of Lords reform (but even this could be in difficulty).
For the Conservatives, the rationale is one of reducing cost both in line with ‘deficit reduction’ but also as part of the response to the MP’s expenses scandal.
Another justification, considerably more viable, is to equalise the number of constituencies. A fundamental principle is that each vote should count as equally as possible. However, it does not automatically follow from this that the number of MPs had to be reduced. Any party gain is likely to be minimal. Psephologists believe the bias against the Conservatives will be reduced, but only by 3 per cent.
As far as I can tell there has never been any serious consideration as to the optimal sum of MPs. There should have been some thought dedicated to this before committing to a final number, and it may well be the case that considerably more or fewer MPs would be needed.
My view is that Parliament would be better served by more rather than fewer MPs. The reduction of MPs will not be followed by a corresponding reduction in the number of Ministers (the ‘payroll vote’). This is a shame. Much has been made of the quality of the 2010 intake and the fact that MPs are more rebellious in this Parliament than at any point since 1945.
Furthermore, there have been procedural reforms to enhance the role of the backbench MP, in particular the creation of a Backbench Business Committee. Parliament matters again.
But fewer backbench MPs means fewer types of people being represented in Parliament, at a time when people are concerned (whether rightly or wrongly) about a so-called political class with little ‘real-world experience’ outside of Westminster. Reducing the number of MP’s does nothing to alter this perception. While expertise is often an argument against House of Lords reform, expertise is also provided by MPs in the commons. The current chamber comprises of the usual smattering of lawyers and businesspeople, but also doctors, academics and economists and former members of our armed forces.
On certain major issues such as the EU and human rights, it is groups of backbenchers rather than the leaderships of parties that tends more closely to represent the views of the electorate.
The ‘gene pool’ for Ministers is also reduced. This may have been one reason behind Gordon Brown’s ‘Government Of All the Talents’, as by the time he became Prime Minister, he had, to some extent, run out of suitable backbenchers.
Parliamentary committees could also be harmed. This is a growth area in MPs’ workloads, so it is inevitably going to be more difficult for the smaller number of MPs to fulfil their commitments in this area alongside all their other commitments without an increase in resources (which will hinder the overall intention to reduce the cost of politics).
The greatest irony in all of this is that should Scotland separate from the rest of the UK in in the forthcoming referendum (whenever that is held), the cost of politics in Westminster will be reduced at a stroke, and the opportunity to revisit constituencies would have emerged. Boundaries could then be equalised without any of the harmful side effects mentioned above.
