Fixed Term Parliaments Bill — New Clause 5 — Expiry of Provisions for Early General Elections — 18 Jan 2011 at 20:00

Stewart Jackson MP, Peterborough voted against making the conditions for holding an early general election expire at the end of the current Parliament, defaulting to simply allowing an election to be initiated following a motion being approved by the House of Commons.

The majority of MPs voted not to make the conditions for early general elections included in the Fixed Term Parliaments Bill expire when the current parliament is dissolved. The exceptions in the Bill enable an early general election to be called following a vote of no-confidence, or a vote by MPs demanding a requestor. Those who voted for the proposed new clause would have allowed future parliaments to set their own conditions for initiating an early general election, with the default position being a motion passed by the House of Commons would be sufficient to initiate an early election.

MPs were debating the Fixed Term Parliaments Bill[1]. The text of the proposed new clause rejected in this vote was:

  • (1) Section 2 expires when the Parliament summoned to meet in May 2010 dissolves.
  • (2) In the course of the first month of the day of first meeting of any Parliament after the expiry of section 2 as a result of subsection (1) above, the Minister may by order bring the section back into force for the remainder of that Parliament.
  • (3) An order made under subsection (2) above is to be made by statutory instrument and shall not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before and approved by a resolution of the House of Commons.
  • (4) If no order has been made under subsection (2) above, an early parliamentary general election is to take place only if the House has passed a motion that there should be an early parliamentary general election.
  • (5) The polling day for an early parliamentary general election under subsection (4) above is to be the day appointed by Her Majesty by proclamation on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.
  • (6) If a polling day is appointed under subsection (5) above, the reference in section 1(4) to the polling day for a parliamentary general election appointed under section 2(6) shall be construed as if referring to a day appointed under subsection (5) above.'.

The section 2 referred to is clause 2 of the Bill[2] which provides for early general elections following a vote of no-confidence in the Government if it is not followed by a motion of confidence in a Government within 14 days; or following a motion by MPs calling such an election if it is passed either unopposed or with a majority of two-thirds of MPs.

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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 (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Alliance1 00100.0%
Con261 (+1 tell) 7 (+2 tell)088.6%
DUP0 6075.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 10100.0%
Lab0 216083.7%
LDem51 (+1 tell) 0091.2%
PC3 00100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
SNP5 0083.3%
Total:321 233086.6%

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
Peter BoneWellingboroughCon (front bench)aye
Bill CashStoneCon (front bench)tellaye
Christopher ChopeChristchurchCon (front bench)aye
Philip HolloboneKetteringCon (front bench)aye
Bernard JenkinHarwich and North EssexCon (front bench)aye
David NuttallBury NorthCon (front bench)tellaye
Jacob Rees-MoggNorth East SomersetCon (front bench)aye
Richard ShepherdAldridge-BrownhillsCon (front bench)aye
Andrew TurnerIsle of WightCon (front bench)aye

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