Iraq — Weapons of Mass Destruction — 24 Sep 2002 at 21:45

Andy Reed MP, Loughborough did not vote.

The majority of MPs voted technically against the House of Commons adjourning. This this vote was in the context of a debate on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction and some have interpreted those voting "no" with the majority of MPs as voting against military action in Iraq.

The motion was "That the House do now adjourn," which is a procedural motion to allow a debate on an open issue.

The issue was the publication of the long-awaited Iraq's weapons of mass destruction dossier, for which Parliament had been recalled.

There was no vote planned, but some MPs held a vote anyway (voting for the House not to adjourn), after which the Speaker said:

  • Order. I have a statement to make. That vote has served its intended purpose, demonstrating the strength of feeling in some quarters of the House on this difficult issue, but because of the rules of the House it does not have any procedural effect. As it is now past 10 o'clock, the debate on Iraq has concluded. It is now the duty of the Government Whip to move formally that this House do now adjourn to bring the sitting to a conclusion, and I must put the Question forthwith.

During the debate Mrs Alice Mahon MP (Halifax, Labour) explained why she was voting saying:[1]

  • The only option for those who want to show our disgust that we might be dragged down this route to war is to vote against the motion on the Adjournment tonight. The public are expecting that. It is a betrayal of public trust that we have not been given a vote.

==

Debate in Parliament | Historical Hansard | Source |

Public Whip is run as a free not-for-profit service. If you'd like to support us, please consider switching your (UK) electricity and/or gas to Octopus Energy or tip us via Ko-Fi.

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
Con0 000.0%
DUP0 1020.0%
Lab53 (+2 tell) 0 (+1 tell)013.7%
LDem2 0 (+1 tell)05.7%
PC4 00100.0%
SNP5 00100.0%
UUP0 5083.3%
Total:64 6011.4%

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
Kelvin HopkinsLuton NorthLabtellaye
Mr Paul MarsdenShrewsbury and Atchamwhilst LDemtellaye

About the Project

The Public Whip is a not-for-profit, open source website created in 2003 by Francis Irving and Julian Todd and now run by Bairwell Ltd.

The Whip on the Web

Help keep PublicWhip alive