What is the Fixed-term Parliaments Act?

Boris Johnson’s Conservative government plans to abolish the Fixed-term Parliaments Act according to the Queen’s Speech, removing the restrictions on when elections can be held.

The repeal of the act was included in the Conservative Party’s manifesto at the general election.

The Queen said: “A Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission will be established. Work will be taken forward to repeal the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act.”

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The act, which set the timeline for general elections, was introduced in 2011 by David Cameron’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government.

According to political scientist Colin Talbot, the act makes minority governments more stable than in the past, but professor of constitutional law Robert Blackburn QC has said that “the status and effect of a no confidence motion remains largely as it was prior to the Act”, meaning little changed.

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What is the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011?

Simply put, it is the legislation that introduced fixed-term elections to Westminster for the first time, creating a five-year period between general elections.

The only circumstances in which elections may be called prematurely are if either the Commons passes a motion in which the “number of members who vote in favour” of dissolving parliament is “greater than two-thirds of the number of seats in the House”, or MPs back a vote of no confidence in the sitting government and 14 days elapse without any administration gaining – or regaining – that confidence.

Why was it introduced?

The coalition government introduced the legislation in 2011 to “underpin its stability by making it hard for either party to bring the government down and force another election”, says The Independent’s John Rentoul.

But it was also enacted in order to stop “opportunist prime ministers ever again calling snap elections to capitalise on hefty poll leads”, writes James Morrison of the Oxford University Press. Ironically, he adds, “it has proved itself wholly incapable of doing any such thing”.

Despite the stated aims of the act, a prime minister wishing to call a general election could, as Boris Johnson is repeatedly attempting to do with Jeremy Corbyn, dare their opposite number to refuse a general election – something widely believed to be electoral suicide.

For this reason, “as an exercise in constitutional tinkering, the check and balance of fixed parliamentary terms has failed”, wrote the Financial Times ahead of the 2017 general election.

Why do the Conservatives want to abolish it?

The law frustrated three attempts by Johnson to call an election on his own terms as it requires two-thirds of MPs to vote for a poll.

The Tory manifesto pledged to “get rid” of the act as it has “led to paralysis at a time the country needed decisive action”. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour manifesto also said it would abolish the law as it “stifled democracy and propped up weak governments”.

According to HuffPost: “Critics of the FTPA when it was introduced said it was a one-off fix to ensure [David Cameron’s] coalition did not collapse.”

If the act is abolished, Johnson will have the power to call an election whenever he chooses.