The political system in the United Kingdom has an established set of rules concerning the actions to be taken when a ‘seat’ in the House of Commons becomes vacant; a situation which could arise either through a resignation or through the MP passing away.  Other circumstances apply such as criminal convictions requiring imprisonment for more than 1 year, however in all cases, the sitting Member of Parliament ceases to represent the constituency.  Under such circumstances, and outside of a General Election, a by-election would be held, in which the constituents will be asked to select a new representative in the House of Commons.  (I should remark that the official description refers to a ‘vacant seat’, a term upon which I have expanded by saying that this means that the departing MP has ceased to represent the constituency.)

This week saw the foundation of a new political party in the United Kingdom called the Independent Group, a party formed from currently elected Members of Parliament in other political parties.  These MPs have resigned from their political party and joined together to form a new political party.  Without exception – each and every one of these MPs has decided to continue on in their post without recourse to a by-election.  The resultant situation is that despite being less than 4-days old, the Independent Group is now the joint-4th largest political party in the United Kingdom (11 MPs), and it has no documented manifesto, and no-one has ever voted for it.   Just to make this clear – no-one has ever voted for it.

Lest it be forgotten, the British political system is one which operates on a party political basis – which means that most MPs are aligned with a specific political party and who then support the policies espoused by that party.  The votes for the MPs of each arty therefore, demonstrate the support that the public has for the views of that party; a party without votes therefore, theoretically has no public support.  Under any conditions I would question the legitimacy of permitting a political party for which no-one has voted to act on the political stage; yet in the current circumstances the situation could perhaps be described as even more important.  Until Tuesday this week, the government had a ‘working majority’ of 13 with the support of the DUP (Democratic Union Party).  This is now only 7 thanks to the switching from the Conservative Party to the Independent Group of 3 MPs.

When the MPs in question were asked why they felt that there was no need to call a by-election a multitude of reasons were given:  the ex-Labour MP Joan Ryan for example, indicated that she had only won her seat in despite of the Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn, and therefore believed that leaving the Labour Party would not impact on her support.

There is however, an inherent double-standard in this argument, which is that (whether we like it or not) the essence of a party political system is that as a member of a party, an MP is expected to toe the line on policy decisions that are declared in the manifesto of that party.  If an MP such as Joan Ryan believes that their constituents would continue to support them in their new position, then where is the harm in asking them to validate that officially?  The conceit that in a party political system, any single MP has been elected because of their personal political views is one which I could perhaps support… were it not for the fact that the vast majority of MPs align with  major political parties – something which would not be necessary if the MPs were standing on their own principles!!  In specific response then to Joan Ryan I say that if you believe that you were elected in spite of Jeremy Corbyn, you have nothing to fear from call a by-election and proving this.

Of course, this won’t happen, not least because Joan Ryan has not left Labour to become independent, she has joined another political party and hence her views will eventually and automatically become subservient to the policies of her new party!! (Perhaps her constituents will vote for her in spite of that too.)

The reason provided by Joan Ryan was not the only argument given against calling a by-election; the ex-Conservative MP Heidi Allen, rejected a call for a by-election saying that “This is what the big parties do.  They want to crush the birth of democracy.  They want to crush people like us trying to change things for this country… we think our constituents and the country deserve better than that.”  This strikes me as another fatuous argument quite frankly, inasmuch that if Ms Allen really thought that she needs to leave the Conservative Party in order to represent the views of her constituents, then surely her constituents would reflect that choice in any by-election that she called!  In fact, she should call a by-election to specifically underscore that point – what better way to show a political party that it is out of touch with the electorate than allowing the electorate the opportunity to prove that very point through the ballot box.

It would be easier to agree with the views of those who say that the British political process is broken, if only they stopped to think before abusing the process for their own ends.

If the MPs of the Independent Group really and truthfully believe that their constituents would be best served by policies other than those of the Labour or the Conservative Party, then for fuck’s sake, let the voters make that decision for themselves – it should after all, be their choice no?