Opposition Day debates occur most weeks. In all, opposition parties have 20 days a year for these debates, traditionally two debates will be held each day. TheyWorkForYou is a website that purports to record how MPs vote on certain matters. The vast majority of the votes that are contentious on the site take place during Opposition Day debates. When political literature claims that Conservative MPs voted to dump sewage into the sea or cut funding for nurses for example, these would be votes that refer to opposition day motions that are cleverly worded to ensure they cannot be supported by Government benches for whatever reason. It could be the unfunded nature of a motion or the consequence of a motion that any sincere MP would want to avoid. An obvious example would be immediately stopping storm overflows which has been the subject of an Opposition Day motion in the past. To do this would ensure our homes and businesses would soon back up with sewage matter during heavy rain for example. I would not vote for that, but I have repeatedly voted to put measures in place to reduce storm overflows and penalise water companies if they don’t. Until now, opposition day motions have not hit the headlines. That is, until the SNP put forward their motion for a ceasefire in Gaza.
I signed the No Confidence Motion Early Day Motion on Wednesday evening for the simple reason that for the Speaker to drift away from convention in Parliament (on such an issue) is a return to the very unacceptable days that plagued the Mother of All Parliament when the then Speaker repeatedly ignored convention following the Brexit Referendum. We all saw how unsatisfactory the situation was then and, more than anything, Parliament must work for those we represent. I fear that, whatever reason the Speaker had to defy longstanding convention, he risks being either persuaded by events outside of Parliament (such as threats to MPs) or kowtowing to Labour in a year of a General Election. And the Labour leader has something to answer for because he admits to urging the Speaker to allow a vote on his amendment. He understands perfectly well how Opposition Day debates work; in fact, he has had several opportunities to bring an Opposition Day motion since the attacks on October 7th. For this reason alone, the Speaker should have resisted the pressure and invited Labour and to bring a motion in a future opportunity.
The Labour leader should not have made any representations to the Speaker whatsoever. If the SNP’s plan was to trip Labour up then this is exactly what all opposition parties do routinely to Conservative MPs at every opportunity. It is just a terrible shame that this took place when debating the horrendous situation in Gaza. I’m not aware of any MP in Parliament that wants the conflict in Israel and Gaza to last a day longer and the Government’s speeches to the UN represent this view. I’m hopeful Parliament can take a robust and agreed position.
