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TRANSPORT SECRETARY RESIGNATION
Kemi Badenoch, the Leader of the Opposition, quizzed the PM over the resignation of the former transport secretary Louise Haigh. She claimed that Starmer’s cabinet was made of “trade union stooges, CV embellishers and an actual fraudster.”
In 2013, Louise Haigh reported that her phone was stolen after a mugging. However, having found it later on, allegedly discovered that it not been taken. She was then charged with fraud, but given the lowest possible charge that the court was able to give.
Sir Keir Starmer commented that the former minister was “right to resign when further information came forward,” but declined to say what the new information was.
The court seem to be in agreement that it was a genuine mistake. However, like it or not, Louise Haigh was still convicted yet labelling the former minister a “fraudster” is undoubtably exaggerated.
Downing Street’s failure to properly vet their ministers seems politically inept, leaving the PM open to attack. However, the smooth, hassle-free transition is a breath of fresh air under the new government compared to the mass Tory cabinet revolts seen in the last 14 years.
CHRISTMAS SONGS
The Christmas spirit has descended upon the members of the House of Commons.
Labour member for Neath and Swansea East has recently released a Christmas single receiving praise from other members of the house.
Carolyn Harris features on “Everyone Deserves a Christmas” receiving a muted response outside of Westminster. The song promotes a charity of the same name aiming to provide support to families in need during Christmas time.
The Christmas feeling has also spread to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, who also appears on a Christmas song “Love is enough,” alongside the Bath Philharmonic Young Carers’ Choir.
Again, it has received muted response outside of Whitehall.
Both songs may not hit no. 1 but they do represent good causes.
Sir Ed Davey has become famous, or perhaps more accurately infamous, for a growing presence on TikTok. Sir Ed Davey has been challenging the Prime Minister to a FIFA match while doing TikTok dances outside Parliament. He has said that he wants to connect to younger audiences to help get them engaged in politics; perhaps he is attempting to combat the global far-right presence which is dominating media platforms like TikTok with more liberal policies.
ELECTORAL REFORM
The Liberal Democrats asked if the government would give its time to consider electoral reform, changing to more proportional representation from First Past the Post which is currently in use.
The proportional representation debate reemerged on the 3rd of December 2024 after a 10-minute rule bill passed in the house. Standing order No 23., a 10-minute rule bill, “allows a backbench MP to make his or her case for a new Bill in a speech lasting up to ten minutes.”
First Past the Post, first used in the form we have today in 1950, is the system that the UK currently uses to elect Members of Parliament. The system works by voting for one MP per constituency and, when they have reached the needed majority, they are awarded the seat regardless of the votes cast against them.
An alternative system is available. Proportional representation aims align the total of votes won by a party and the number of seats they receive on election night.
Smaller parties, like Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats may have an interest in changing the system to allow them to grow their base quicker and try and stop the ‘super-majorities’ that come from First Past the Post.
For instance, in the July 4th 2024 general election, Labour received 33.7% of the vote share but now hold 421 seats. Hardly what you would imagine to be representative of the views of the nation? The Liberal Democrats got 12.2% of the national vote share and now hold 72 seats. Contrastingly, Reform UK received a larger 14.3% of the vote share but only gained 5 seats. Broad but thinly spread national support will not win elections because they will not win seats.
The Bill passed a poorly attended vote receiving a majority in favour by just 2 votes. Reform UK had pledged proportional representation in their manifesto and the whole party attended, yes, all 5 of them. However, there was division in the voting lobby. Rupert Lowe, Reform UK member for Great Yarmouth, voted against the motion. Perhaps he forgot what was written in his party’s manifesto?
So now that the vote has been won will we be voting differently in the next election? Probably not. The vote has only moved it into the next stage, a second reading on the 24th of January 2025, far from entering the law.
So, will this lead to greater momentum for a change in the way we vote? Again, probably not. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said during PMQs that it “is not our policy and we will not be making time for it.” Labour holds a simple 156-seat majority, because of the First Past the Post system, so it is inconceivable that anything will pass without their approval. A cynic may say that the vote was allowed to pass in order to consume more of the opposition’s time ultimately aiming to kill the bill before the committee stage.
The Prime Minister further quipped that Sir Ed Davey “did not do too badly under the system as it is,” showing that it is very unlikely that a 10-minute rule bill, from a third party, will change the voting system. Labour is hardly going to bite the hand that feeds them. Or perhaps the system that sat them.
Image: Sir Keir Starmer MP, The Prime Minister (Holborn and St Pancras, Labour), House of Commons, 2024 // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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