Fixed Term Parliaments Bill — Clause 1 — Both Houses of Parliament to Approve General Election Date — 13 Jul 2011 at 16:15

The majority of MPs voted against requiring a resolution of both Houses of Parliament to approve the date of a general election.

MPs were considering the Fixed Term Parliaments Bill[1] when they approved the following motion in a vote:

  • That this house disagrees with Lords amendment 1.

Lords amendment 1 was[2]:

  • Page 1, line 6, at beginning insert “If, but only if, a resolution to this effect is approved by each House of the Parliament in question,”

This would have effected subclause 1(3) of the Bill[3] which stated:

  • The polling day for each subsequent parliamentary general election is to be the first Thursday in May in the fifth calendar year following that in which the polling day for the previous parliamentary general election fell.

The effect of the rejected amendment would have been to require each Parliament to pass a motion setting the date of the next general election; against the principle of a fixed term Parliament.

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
Alliance1 00100.0%
Con247 (+2 tell) 9184.6%
DUP4 0050.0%
Green1 00100.0%
Independent0 10100.0%
Lab0 230 (+2 tell)089.9%
LDem48 0084.2%
PC2 0066.7%
SDLP2 10100.0%
SNP6 00100.0%
Total:311 241186.5%

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
Christopher ChopeChristchurchCon (front bench)no
Philip DaviesShipleyCon (front bench)no
Bernard JenkinHarwich and North EssexCon (front bench)no
David NuttallBury NorthCon (front bench)no
Jacob Rees-MoggNorth East SomersetCon (front bench)no
Richard ShepherdAldridge-BrownhillsCon (front bench)no
Andrew TurnerIsle of WightCon (front bench)no
Charles WalkerBroxbourneCon (front bench)no
Peter BoneWellingboroughCon (front bench)both
Alasdair McDonnellBelfast SouthSDLP (front bench)no

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