Political Parties and Elections Bill — Parliamentary candidates can keep their home addresses secret — 2 Mar 2009 at 21:00

Dan Rogerson MP, North Cornwall voted in the minority (Teller for the Noes).

The majority of MPs voted, without any debate,[1] to add a new clause to the Political Parties and Elections Bill[2] that makes the following changes to the rules for running Parliamentary elections:[3]

  • In Rule 6 (Nomination of candidates), the candidate's home address shall no longer appear on the nomination paper, but instead on a separate sheet of paper that may also contain a statement that it should not be made public.
  • In Rule 11 (Right to attend nomination), the returning officer is no longer allowed to let anyone, except the other candidates, their election agent or their proposers, to see the page containing the home address.
  • In Rule 14 (Publication of statement of persons nominated), those candidates who have declared their addresses shall not be made public will only be listed with the constituency in which their home address is located.
  • New Rule 53A (Destruction of home address forms): the returning officer shall destroy each candidate's home address form three weeks after the election

Julian Lewis, the MP who sponsored this new clause, had earlier sponsored a change to the Freedom of Information Act to exempt the disclosure of MP's addresses, their travel plans, how much they spend on security, and the identities of people who deliver goods to them[4] for fear that "a self-taught follower of al-Qaeda... goes on the internet, conveniently finds 646 addresses and sends 646 packages containing something explosive, horrible or, at the very least, abusive to 646 unprotected mail boxes"[5] having already come to terms with the fact that "if someone who is targeting a particular MP and means to track him or her down in order to do him or her harm puts in enough effort, it will be possible to do so."[5]

In the aftermath of this vote there was such disquiet among some MPs about the apparent irregularities on how it had been handled to the extent that two further divisions were called on minor and consequential amendments.[6][7] Following this debate about the lack of a debate and appeals to the Chair to do something about it,[8] Julian Lewis put on record the fact that "although both the Government and the Opposition treated this free vote as a free vote, the Liberal Democrats whipped all their Members to vote one way."

Further reading

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con66 (+1 tell) 25047.7%
Independent2 2066.7%
Lab160 (+1 tell) 97073.7%
LDem7 46 (+2 tell)087.3%
PC0 1033.3%
SNP0 6085.7%
Total:235 177066.9%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Bill CashStoneCon (front bench)no
Philip DaviesShipleyConno
James DuddridgeRochford and Southend EastCon (front bench)no
Mark FieldCities of London and WestminsterCon (front bench)no
Justine GreeningPutneyCon (front bench)no
Douglas HoggSleaford and North HykehamConno
John HoramOrpingtonCon (front bench)no
Mark LancasterNorth East Milton KeynesCon (front bench)no
Andrew LansleySouth CambridgeshireCon (front bench)no
Edward LeighGainsboroughCon (front bench)no
Oliver LetwinWest DorsetCon (front bench)no
Francis MaudeHorshamCon (front bench)no
Theresa MayMaidenheadCon (front bench)no
Patrick McLoughlinWest DerbyshireCon (front bench)no
Anne MiltonGuildfordCon (front bench)no
Andrew MitchellSutton ColdfieldCon (front bench)no
Owen PatersonNorth ShropshireCon (front bench)no
John RandallUxbridgeCon (front bench)no
John RedwoodWokinghamConno
Andrew SelousSouth West BedfordshireCon (front bench)no
Nicholas SoamesMid SussexCon (front bench)no
Andrew TyrieChichesterCon (front bench)no
Ben WallaceLancaster and WyreCon (front bench)no
Nigel WatersonEastbourneCon (front bench)no
Angela WatkinsonUpminsterCon (front bench)no
David AndersonBlaydonLab (minister)no
Hilary ArmstrongNorth West DurhamLabno
Vera BairdRedcarLab (minister)no
Edward BallsNormantonLab (minister)no
Gordon BanksOchil and South PerthshireLab (minister)no
Kevin BarronRother ValleyLab (minister)no
Roger BerryKingswoodLab (minister)no
Ben BradshawExeterLab (minister)no
Kevin BrennanCardiff WestLab (minister)no
Lyn BrownWest HamLabno
Des BrowneKilmarnock and LoudounLabno
Karen BuckRegent's Park and Kensington NorthLab (minister)no
Richard BurdenBirmingham, NorthfieldLab (minister)no
Andy BurnhamLeighLab (minister)no
Ronnie CampbellBlyth ValleyLabno
Martin CatonGowerLab (minister)no
Ian CawseyBrigg and GooleLab (minister)no
Colin ChallenMorley and RothwellLab (minister)no
Ann CoffeyStockportLabno
Rosie CooperWest LancashireLab (minister)no
Yvette CooperPontefract and CastlefordLab (minister)no
Jeremy CorbynIslington NorthLabno
Mary CreaghWakefieldLab (minister)no
John DenhamSouthampton, ItchenLab (minister)no
Frank DoranAberdeen NorthLab (minister)no
David DrewStroudLab (minister)no
Angela EagleWallaseyLab (minister)no
Maria EagleLiverpool, GarstonLab (minister)no
Natascha EngelNorth East DerbyshireLabno
Frank FieldBirkenheadLab (minister)no
Mark FisherStoke-on-Trent CentralLabno
Jim FitzpatrickPoplar and Canning TownLab (minister)no
Barbara FollettStevenageLab (minister)no
Michael FosterWorcesterLab (minister)no
Michael Jabez FosterHastings and RyeLab (minister)no
Barry GardinerBrent NorthLabno
Neil GerrardWalthamstowLab (minister)no
Ian GibsonNorwich NorthLab (minister)no
John GroganSelbyLab (minister)no
Mike HallWeaver ValeLab (minister)no
David HansonDelynLab (minister)no
John HealeyWentworthLab (minister)no
John HeppellNottingham EastLab (minister)no
Stephen HesfordWirral WestLab (minister)no
Keith HillStreathamLab (minister)no
Kate HoeyVauxhallLab (minister)no
Kelvin HopkinsLuton NorthLab (minister)no
Kim HowellsPontypriddLabno
Joan HumbleBlackpool North and FleetwoodLab (minister)no
John HuttonBarrow and FurnessLab (minister)no
Alan JohnsonKingston upon Hull West and HessleLab (minister)no
Lynne JonesBirmingham, Selly OakLab (minister)no
Sally KeebleNorthampton NorthLab (minister)no
Sadiq KhanTootingLab (minister)no
David KidneyStaffordLab (minister)no
Ashok KumarMiddlesbrough South and East ClevelandLabno
David LammyTottenhamLab (minister)no
Mark LazarowiczEdinburgh North and LeithLab (minister)no
Denis MacShaneRotherhamLabno
Rob MarrisWolverhampton South WestLabno
Eric MartlewCarlisleLab (minister)no
Anne McGuireStirlingLabno
Tony McNultyHarrow EastLab (minister)no
Austin MitchellGreat GrimsbyLab (minister)no
Chris MoleIpswichLab (minister)no
Elliot MorleyScunthorpeLabno
Doug NaysmithBristol North WestLab (minister)no
Ian PearsonDudley SouthLab (minister)no
James PlaskittWarwick and LeamingtonLabno
Steve PoundEaling NorthLab (minister)no
Bridget PrenticeLewisham EastLab (minister)no
Gwyn ProsserDoverLab (minister)no
Jamie ReedCopelandLab (minister)no
Geoffrey RobinsonCoventry North WestLabno
Martin SalterReading WestLab (minister)no
Dennis SkinnerBolsoverLab (minister)no
Andrew SlaughterEaling, Acton and Shepherd's BushLab (minister)no
Andrew SmithOxford EastLabno
Angela SmithBasildonLabno
Geraldine SmithMorecambe and LunesdaleLab (minister)no
Peter SoulsbyLeicester SouthLab (minister)no
Gavin StrangEdinburgh EastLab (minister)no
Jack StrawBlackburnLab (minister)no
David TaylorNorth West LeicestershireLab (minister)no
Emily ThornberryIslington South and FinsburyLab (minister)no
Stephen TimmsEast HamLab (minister)no
Mark ToddSouth DerbyshireLab (minister)no
Paul TruswellPudseyLabno
Kitty UssherBurnleyLab (minister)no
Joan WalleyStoke-on-Trent NorthLab (minister)no
Alan WhiteheadSouthampton, TestLab (minister)no
Michael WillsNorth SwindonLab (minister)no
Phil WilsonSedgefieldLab (minister)no
Rosie WintertonDoncaster CentralLab (minister)no
David WrightTelfordLabno
Iain WrightHartlepoolLab (minister)no
Tony WrightCannock ChaseLab (minister)no
Tom BrakeCarshalton and WallingtonLDem (front bench)aye
Martin HorwoodCheltenhamLDem (front bench)aye
Lembit ÖpikMontgomeryshireLDem (front bench)aye
Paul RowenRochdaleLDem (front bench)aye
Andrew StunellHazel GroveLDem (front bench)aye
Jo SwinsonEast DunbartonshireLDem (front bench)aye
Phil WillisHarrogate and KnaresboroughLDem (front bench)aye

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