A government motion that will guarantee it a majority on the committee which decides whether the EU withdrawal bill should be amended is an “affront to democracy”, opponents say.
Standing committees – properly called public bill committees – are created principally to scrutinise bills before Parliament passes them. In the past, their make-up has been adjusted to reflect the number of MPs each party has in the Commons.
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However, the new motion proposes to change the rules to ensure Conservatives have a majority on all standing committees. Other types of committee, including select committees, would still be balanced.
With no outright majority in the Commons, Theresa May is facing a tricky time getting MPs to sign off on her EU withdrawal bill as it stands. It is expected that Tory rebels will back Labour and insist on amendments, although they are not expected to reject the Bill outright.
If the standing committee that supervises the withdrawal Bill and draws up the amendments is on May’s side, however, pushing it through will be considerably easier. Downing Street said the planned changes to the committees would reduce “disruption” and “ensure technical, procedural rules do not cause unwarranted delays”.
‘An attempt to rig Parliament’
Opposition parties reacted with dismay. Jeremy Corbyn called the proposal a “power grab” and an “attempt to rig Parliament”.
Lib Dem chief whip Alistair Carmichael said the proposal was “an affront to democracy” and promised: “We will fight tooth and nail to ensure parliamentary committees reflect the will of the electorate and do not simply rubber-stamp government decisions.”
Labour’s shadow leader of the house, Valerie Vaz, said: “This is an unprecedented power grab by a minority government that lost its moral authority as well as its majority at the general election.”
She continued: “The very people who told us Brexit was about restoring parliamentary sovereignty are now voting through measures that will sideline Parliament and grant ministers unprecedented powers.”
HuffPost UK, which broke the story yesterday, says the reform would “give unprecedented power to a minority government for the first time”. According to the site, the new rules would allow May to pursue her agenda even without the backing of the DUP.
The PM will need the support of her Northern Irish partners to get the proposal through, however, when it goes to the vote on Tuesday.