Coalition Government: Constitution Committee Report

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Lab)]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jay, for the presentation to your Lordships’ House today of this excellent report from the Constitution Committee. On behalf of perhaps all the devolved Administrations over recent years, I thank the committee for the opportunity to give evidence and to speak in this debate.

In addition to the experience over the past four years of coalition government in the United Kingdom, of course, the UK has also seen coalition government in different forms in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over recent years. I was very pleased that the committee was willing to take that experience and use it, as I believe the noble Lord, Lord O’Donnell, did in preparing for and then executing the discussions after the 2010 general election.

The committee’s report is thoughtful and balanced. I, too, hope that the Government and the Opposition will respond to the recommendations that have been made. I do not think that any of them should leave it until closer to the general election to do so. I hope that as well as getting a response today from the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, at some point we will also receive a proper written response from the Government and that the official Opposition will consider this report and make public their views on it, too; all the political parties here have to address the issues that have been raised.

When I gave evidence to the committee I was reminded of an article I had written that was published on 15 May 2010, entitled “Ten tips for making coalition work”, based on my experience in Scotland shortly after the coalition agreement had been reached by Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Clegg. That experience came from being part of the first Cabinet in Scotland in 1999 and the coalition agreement that I like to describe as the “Add the Liberal Democrats on” coalition—because essentially Donald Dewar and colleagues had been in government and moved into the Scottish Parliament but did not have a majority there so they worked hard to secure the agreement of the Liberal Democrats, led by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, to form a coalition for the first four years, which managed to survive three different First Ministers and a whole series of crises. It saw out its four years and implemented a raft of legislation that perhaps would have been seen as very ambitious back in May 1999 but made a real difference to Scotland.

Then came a very different coalition. Because of the way in which it came together it was essentially stronger, based on two manifestos that had really been written for the Scottish Parliament and that were about what was happening in Scotland at the time. The politicians knew each other and the Parliament well, and what they could achieve. In 2003 that coalition made a huge difference over four years in building a more confident and successful, and a healthier, Scotland.

The 10 tips that I outlined in that article focused primarily on three issues. One was trust: not just personal trust between—in my case—the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, but also between the parties to ensure that there was a working relationship on the Back Benches as well as on the Front Benches. Secondly, there was the important issue of dealing with compromises and disputes: the flexibility required in government to respond to events and to seize opportunities as they arise if they have not been foreseen. Thirdly, there was the absolutely vital issue of direction and a sense of purpose. Within that there was the necessity for a one-for-all, all-for-one approach to collective responsibility and the work of Ministers.

Had those tips not been very real in our coalition when I was First Minister in Scotland, it would not have been possible to lead the UK on the ban on smoking in public places or deal with a controversial issue such as in-migration to help reverse Scotland’s population decline and improve our economic performance so that we were ahead of the UK in GDP growth rather than behind it. We also made huge changes to our justice system and a legislative programme between 2003 and 2007—changes that were long overdue. Having a strong coalition can be effective, but it needs to have those key elements of trust, flexibility and collective responsibility to make it work well. That is why I agree strongly with the report from the Constitution Committee. I readily endorse all but one of the recommendations, and I will draw attention to three issues in particular.

The first is the role of the Civil Service in advance of and after an election. This will be a very real issue next year as the preparations for the general election get closer, and then in the post-election scenario that could well lead to similar discussions taking place again. The recommendation in paragraph 40 has my full support based on the experience in Scotland, and in London in 2010.

The second issue is one to which my noble friend Lady Jay did not refer: access to papers in future Administrations. A recommendation in paragraph 131 sets out the procedure that could be used following these five years of coalition government in order to ensure that both parties are treated fairly in the issue of access to ministerial papers under future Governments. This arrangement has been broken by the Scottish National Party Government in Scotland during these past seven years—I think quite disgracefully. Therefore, I enthusiastically support the recommendation of the committee. This issue should be agreed in advance of the general election in 2015, and whatever agreement is reached should be adhered to by whatever party is in government afterwards. The situation in Scotland today, where Nationalist Ministers see the papers of previous Administrations in advance of the previous Administration being consulted about public access to those papers, is disgraceful and should not be repeated in Whitehall or at Westminster.

The third issue that I want to mention is that of collective responsibility. In paragraphs 77 to 79, the committee makes valuable recommendations about the operation of collective responsibility. Over the past four years, we have seen the difficulties that can arise when collective responsibility is not adhered to, either publicly or in many cases privately and off the record under this coalition Government. One of the strengths of our coalition in Scotland was an adherence to collective responsibility, not just in public but in private, too. There were almost no instances of individual Ministers briefing against each other off the record to newspapers during my time as First Minister. That should be the case in all coalition Governments, so I strongly support the committee’s recommendations.

However, I do not agree with the committee on the parliamentary endorsement of the coalition agreement. Collective responsibility would be strengthened if a coalition agreement was put to a vote in Parliament, in addition to the vote on the Queen’s Speech and the legislative programme. So there I depart from the committee’s recommendations in paragraph 60, where it does not support that approach. I think that a parliamentary endorsement of the coalition agreement would be a very good thing.

There are 12 months to go until the 2015 general election. I can say right now that being in a coalition Government will get more difficult over those 12 months. I may be stating the obvious, but the final 12 months will be a real challenge for all concerned. However, it is not impossible for a coalition to stick together to the very end. I predicted in May 2010 that this coalition would stick together and I believe that it will. If those involved are mature enough to be able to set out mechanisms for working behind the scenes as well as in public and to continue to prioritise their programme for government, this coalition will last the full five years.

I hope that it does not experience too many difficulties during the election period. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, and I did have an experience in April 2003 when we had to deal with an important emergency issue and make a decision, breaking off from the campaign trail and abusing each other in public to make an agreement in private to ensure that school meals in Scotland were adequately provided for following a change in the UK Budget. There will be moments when people have to talk in private and in public, but they should also be perfectly capable of campaigning against each other publicly and at the same time putting a proper choice to the voters for the next Government.

Like everybody else, I presume, I would have preferred that Labour had had a majority in the Scottish Parliament when I was First Minister, and we could have implemented more of our programme and less of the programme of others; but we did not. We had to compromise. We had to work with the result from the electorate. Despite the fact that at the time we were working in unusual circumstances, bringing together coalitions for the first time in the UK in peacetime, the reality was that we made a huge difference by putting the interests of Scotland ahead of our parties and making that Government work.

There was at least one benefit aside from implementing the programme. In a coalition government, some of the extremes that you see in a single-party Government—legislation not being properly thought through, the instincts of Prime Ministers or First Ministers going ahead of common sense and due deliberation inside the party, never mind outside it—are not there because the challenge between two parties in a coalition can improve in decision-making. While it may be frustrating and difficult at times, there can be benefits from a coalition Government; we should not put ourselves in a situation where we would regret or feel too disappointed about losing an opportunity to govern alone after the next general election in the UK. The country should come first.

The UK has many proud traditions that help us govern successfully and set an example of governance around the world. The protocols and conventions—parliamentary accountability, the principle of collective government responsibility and all the other issues addressed in this report—are examples of the way in which coalition government can work for the people for the country, not just for the politicians who assume their positions in that Government. I readily endorse the recommendations of the report and hope that the Government and the Official Opposition will take them on board in advance of May 2015.