Motion to sit in private — 11 Mar 2009 at 18:09

The majority of MPs voted against a motion for the house to sit in private.

A speech after the vote^[1] indicated that those who called for the vote were trying to derail the process of Parliament passing a motion allowing the UK Youth Parliament from holding an event within the commons chamber. A further speech^[2] explained the mechanism for this - calling for a vote to in private created a delay, which might have led to there not being time to consider the motion on the United Kingdom Youth Parliament using the commons chamber.

Standing Order^[3] No. 163 states once a motion to sit in private has been moved it must be "forthwith put" ie. the speaker or the chair must straight away ask MPs if they agree or not and if necessary proceed to a vote. Standing order 163 also states a motion to sit in private may only be moved once per sitting.

This motion was moved prior to the debate on the use of the chamber by the United Kingdom Youth Parliament, this had the effect of preventing it being used later in the day. If the motion had been moved later in the day and less than 40 MPs had voted in the resulting division under standing order 41 the debate in progress, presumably the debate on motion on the use of the chamber by the United Kingdom Youth Parliament would have been "stood over" ie. stopped, and resumed at the next sitting of the house. There may not have been time for the house to re-consider the motion in a timely manner.

• [1] Chris Bryant MP, House of Commons, 11 March 2009
• [3] Anne Moffat MP, House of Commons, 11 March 2009
• [2] House of Commons Standing Orders, April 2010 - PDF

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