Last week, the Equality Bill reached its Report stage in the House of Commons – and provoked splits in no fewer than four parties.
The Bill had previously seen very little dissent: John Bercow was the only MP from to vote against the Bill’s Second Reading. Bercow, now Speaker, is now studiously neutral on the matter, and cannot vote. But that didn’t stop other MPs from doing so. Some wanted the Bill to go further; others thought it should do less. The largest rebellion saw 14 Labour MPs support a Liberal Democrat clause that would have introduced mandatory pay audits for the purpose of identifying differences in pay between male and female employees. (James Plaskitt also voted in both lobbies) The same evening saw another Labour rebellion, this time in a more conservative direction. Eight Labour MPs, including the former Cabinet Minister, Ruth Kelly, supported David Drew’s amendment that would have deleted the part of the Bill that appeared to weaken the exemption provided for religious organisations, especially in relation to an employee’s sexual orientation. The issue also saw splits in the Liberal Democrats. Six Lib Dems voted for the amendment (including five frontbenchers), while 38 voted against. The SNP also split: 3/2 in favour of the amendment.
When it came to the Third Reading of the Bill, it was the turn of the Conservatives to split, albeit only a handful of them: with the Conservative frontbench abstaining, six Tory backbenchers – four of them from the 2005 intake plus Ann Widdecombe and Sir Nicholas Winterton – voted against the Bill in its entirety.
Here's our latest set of scores-on-the-doors, based on figures up to the end of the fourth session of this parliament, and as reported this morning by the Telegraph.
The headlines:
* Labour MPs defied their whips on 74 occasions, a rebellion in 30 percent of divisions, exactly the same as the preceding session’s figure.
* The Parliament as a whole is currently averaging a rate of 27 percent, on course to become the most rebellious in the post-war era. The current record is 21 percent, set by the 2001 Parliament.
* In absolute terms, that record has already been achieved; the 2005 Parliament has already seen more revolts against the whip by members of the governing party than any other post-war parliament.
* A total of 102 Labour MPs voted against their whips during the session; the total number of Labour rebels under Brown now stands at 137.
* Rebellion remains concentrated amongst a small group of Labour MPs. The top ten rebels in the 2008-09 session accounted for marginally under half (46%) of the total rebellious votes cast; the top 20 rebels accounted for exactly two-thirds (66%) of the total.
* John McDonnell took the top spot as the most rebellious Labour MP in the fourth session, clocking up 46 dissenting votes.
* He was closely followed by Jeremy Corbyn on 45. Corbyn’s total number of votes against the whip for the Brown administration alone has now passed the 100 mark, with more than 400 in total since 1997.
* The government suffered two defeats during the session as a result of its backbenchers defying the whip – on Gurkhas and Parliamentary Standards.
And one fact not in the paper: The Parliament as a whole has now seen six defeats, caused by backbench dissent, on whipped votes. No Parliament with a majority of over 60 has seen this many defeats in the post-war era.
Every week has seen at least one Labour rebellion since the Commons returned, and Monday's night saw a tiddler: 11 Labour MPs supporting an amendment in the name of Labour backbencher, Katy Clark during the Report stage of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill that would have strengthened the minister's power to designate Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs).
The division also saw Jeremy Corbyn's 99th rebellious vote under Gordon Brown; he managed 301 under Blair. Less than a week, we reckon, before Corbyn hits the century.
We love this Mystic Meg stuff. No sooner had we written a post about growing discontent on opposition day motions, than we get one over the TA, followed by a complete government U turn. At least they've learnt something from the Gurkhas...
Most of the government’s trouble with its backbenchers comes from a pretty predictable group of people. For example, who was the top rebel under Tony Blair? Jeremy Corbyn. Top rebel under Gordon Brown? You’ve guessed it: J Corbyn. But glance at the rebellion lists for the last year, and you see some much more surprising names mixed in with all the Corbyns and the McDonnells, including people like Robert Flello, Jim Dowd, Dari Taylor and even Gordon Banks (previously considered a safe pair of hands).* There are 17 Labour MPs who’ve rebelled under Brown who did not do so under Blair (along with one, Virendra Sharma, who entered the Commons after Brown became Prime Minister and who’s also rebelled).
Top new rebel? Mark Todd (six votes against the whip during the Brown government), closely followed by Shona McIssac and Ian Cawsey (four), and Nick Palmer and Fiona Mactaggart (three). There are five MPs whose rebellions you’d not have put money on two years ago.
*Yes, we know he’s Scottish, not English. And that he’s not the goalkeeper. But it’s too good (or bad) a joke not to use.
There were two Labour rebellions last week, both on Liberal Democrat Opposition Day motions. One, on compensation for policyholders of Equitable Life, saw 18 Labour MPs vote against their whip, and the government’s majority reduced to 35. The second, on the so-called ‘10:10 campaign’ for a delivery plan to achieve a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2010, saw 12 Labour rebels voting against their party line.
This is just the latest Opposition Day motion to attract a half-decent revolt. Under Brown’s leadership, there have been 22 separate rebellions over Opposition Day matters, including those in favour of an Iraq inquiry (12 rebels, March 2008), against Post Office closures (19 rebels, March 2008), the proposed third runaway at Heathrow (28 rebels, January 2009), and of course, the Government defeat on the immigration rights of Gurkhas (27 rebels and loads of abstentions, 29 April 2009). Compare that to the first Blair parliament, between 1997 and 2001, when there were just two Labour rebellions on Opposition Days.
This is a second front for the whips office. It means that the Government Whips’ Office now has to contend not only with rebellions on contentious legislation, but also on motions on topics carefully crafted by the Opposition to cause maximum embarrassment to the Government.
Well, we’re sort of back. Still no funding, so we’re on a sort of revolts.co.uk life-support system, with the ECG monitor beeping faintly and sporadically in the background. But there’s lots going on, so it seemed a shame to miss it completely.
For example, on the first week back since the summer recess, Labour rebels returned to their old habits. There were five Labour rebellions, the largest of which saw 14 backbenchers support a new clause in the name of Andrew Mackinlay during the passage of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill (what an appalling title?). Mackinlay was so incensed with the minister responsible, Rosie Winterton that at one point, he declared: ‘I will simply not let her get away with this nonsense’. He later described as ‘rubbish’ that part of the Local Government Act 2000 that abolished the old committee-based structure for councils with populations less than 85,000. Mackinlay wanted to restore that choice by upping the maximum to councils with up to one million people.
Mackinlay has really upped his rate of rebellions under Gordon Brown. He rebelled 27 times during the whole of the Blair decade; he has now matched that figure after only two-and-a-half years of Brown’s leadership.
Labour rebellions are running at an alarming rate – 28% of all divisions so far this session.