Oral Answers to Questions

Roberta Blackman-Woods Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con)]

5. What plans he has to introduce a power for electors in a constituency to recall their elected Member of Parliament.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

7. When he plans to publish his proposals to allow electors in a constituency to recall their elected Member of Parliament.

[The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg)]

The Government are committed to bringing forward legislation to introduce a power to recall Members of Parliament. We are currently considering what would be the fairest, and most appropriate and robust, procedure, and we will make a statement soon setting out our plans to establish a recall mechanism.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As my hon. Friend may know, we want the recall mechanism to be based on two simple steps: first, proof that wrongdoing has been committed, as I explained in answer to the previous question; and secondly, a petition by at least 10% of the electors to trigger a by-election in the constituency concerned. That is slightly different from some of the models to which my hon. Friend referred, in California and elsewhere, where there is a much more open-ended process.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

Can the Deputy Prime Minister tell the House whether he still believes that MPs should be recalled for breaking their promises—and if he does, how many Liberal Democrat MPs does he expect would be subject to that system?