Hannah White

The government has taken a fully functioning digital voting system which took 15mins per vote in which all MPs could participate and replaced it with a queuing system taking 45mins per vote in which only 2/3 of MPs can participate. Not a great advert for government effectiveness.

On Tuesday, some MPs will attempt to secure an answer to the question of whether Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament - something he has denied...

A thread 🧵 on contempt of/for the House of Commons..

Talk of “Boris Johnson’s mandate” (from him and others including @BBCNews ) is constitutionally illiterate. It is the Conservative party that has a mandate and they had chosen him as leader, therefore he is PM. We do not have a presidential system.

Last week media discussion was about ‘why the public disparage MPs when most of them are honest and hardworking like David Amess?’ Today’s amendment from MPs proposing to let their colleague off for ‘egregious’ paid lobbying is EXACTLY why the public has a low opinion of MPs

A thought 🤔… @BorisJohnson has neatly sidestepped any parliamentary sanction by resigning. The only meaningful option open to @HoCPrivileges now would be to recommend he be denied the privileged access to Westminster normally afforded to former MPs - as happened to John Bercow

Apparently the govt will whip its MPs tomorrow to vote for its motion abolishing remote voting on the basis that it is essential for govt business to restore in person sittings, & that a vote for the procedure committee amendments is a vote against getting Brexit done...

With two seats to declare we already have the most female parliament ever - 40% of MPs are now women! Fantastic news!

I am delighted to have been appointed the next director of the @instituteforgov. At this challenging time for the UK, the Institute’s mission has never been more important and I am honoured to lead the Institute’s fantastic team working to make government more effective.

If MPs do not even mount an investigation when the PM has been found by police to have personally broken a law he repeatedly told the House had not been broken, the public’s view of the validity of parliamentary scrutiny will likely suffer further irreparable damage…

... in my view there will be a Q about the legitimacy of swathes of legislation passed in circumstances where large numbers of MPs are paired or have to cast their votes by proxy having been unable to speak in debates or propose amendments. Terrible for public trust in govt.

... so much for protestations from @Jacob_Rees_Mogg that getting MPs back to Westminster is about restoring proper scrutiny. It seems the govt is worried that it won’t get all its manifesto and Brexit bills through as rapidly as it wants with the House sitting virtually...

Boris’s preemptive resignation cannot diminish the significance of the Privileges Committee’s findings - latest from me for ⁦@instituteforgov⁩ on this evening’s dramatic news 👇 instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/summar…

Good to hear @Keir_Starmer say his first remarks to Cabinet were to establish the standards he expects of them, and that he has had an early meeting with Sir Laurie Magnus - the PM’s adviser on ministerial interests - in line with our recommendations instituteforgovernment.org.uk/press-release/…

If its impossible as a minister to get sacked from this govt, but senior officials continue to sacrifice their careers when things go wrong (5 so far...) that will lead to disastrous erosion of trust between the civil service & ministers... theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

It is not only the political future of Johnson but the credibility of parliament itself which MPs must weigh in the balance when deciding how to proceed: the credibility which underpins our entire system of democratic government.

This is why the accuracy of information ministers give to Parliament is so important - scrutiny is ineffective unless ministers answer MPs’ questions truthfully - & why the ministerial code imposes the most severe consequences for misleading parliament - resignation…

I expect - despite his resignation - the Privileges Committee will still publish its report and the government ought to allow a vote on its recommendations - in line with the precedent of the @HoCStandards report on Owen Paterson

And MPs’ attempt to hold the PM to account for his words in parliament is of wider importance…Why? Parliament has several roles but arguably its most important is providing a check on executive power by scrutinising the decisions and actions of government ministers…

Without scrutiny ministers would be free to exercise their extensive powers arbitrarily. Their actions could still be retrospectively challenged in the courts, but a country where a legislature’s checks are eroded risks edging towards autocracy see Russia bit.ly/3rumVag

Even before ‘partygate’ MPs were expressing concern about the weakness of mechanisms to challenge the accuracy of statements made by ministers in the Commons. The UK Statistics Authority has publicly rebuked both Johnson and Matt Hancock for misleading use of statistics…