Procedural Motion — Stop Christopher Chope MP's Speech on Daylight Saving Time — 20 Jan 2012 at 10:45

Adam Afriyie MP, Windsor voted to stop MP Christopher Chope's speech on amendments to the Daylight Saving Bill which had been going on for about an hour.

The majority of MPs voted to stop MP Christopher Chope's speech on amendments to the Daylight Saving Bill which had been going on for about an hour.

MPs were considering a series of amendments to the Daylight Saving Bill[1]

MP Christopher Chope was speaking to to move an amendment on restricting consideration of changes to time in the UK to "advancing the period of summer time in the UK by an hour", as opposed to advancing time by an hour throughout the year (for more details see the PublicWhip page describing the subsequent substantive vote).

Usually in order to bring debate to a close and move to a vote the motion: "That the Question now be put" would be moved; however in this case as the mover of the motion was still speaking the question had not yet been proposed. (Motions are proposed by the chair after the speech in which they are proposed by the member moving them has concluded[2]). There is no question which can be put until one is proposed.

In this vote the majority of MPs voted in favour of the motion

  • That the Question be now proposed.

The motion had been moved during MP Christopher Chope's speech and under House of Commons Standing Order 29[3] the question was put "forthwith".

Lindsay Hoyle MP (Chorley, Labour), who was in the chair, stated[4]:

  • this Standing Order was last used in 1987

A search of TheyWorkForYou.com[5] shows usages in 1999, 2001 and 2007 prior to the one which prompted this vote.

Under House of Commons standing order 37[6] at least 100 MPs had to vote in the majority in favour of the motion in order for it to be passed, in this case 119 MPs voted with the majority in favour of the motion.

As soon as the vote to stop Christopher Chope's speech was passed Mr Chope raised a point of order (dismissed as a non-point of order by the chair) to say[7]:

  • On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I was about to bring my remarks to a quick conclusion because I had already discussed all the amendments, but I can tell all those who supported the motion that I do not hold any animus against them.

Background to the procedural motion which was the subject of this vote can be found in the record of a speech in the House of Commons on the 27th of February 1986 where MP Mr John Biffen (North Shropshire) described the then proposed introduction of the procedure saying[8]:

  • Similarly, we seek to implement the proposal that there should be a new motion to deal with exceptionally long speeches in Committee or on Report. The motion would be: "That the Question be now proposed".

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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 (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con66 (+2 tell) 6 (+2 tell)024.8%
Green1 00100.0%
Lab39 0015.1%
LDem13 1024.6%
SNP0 3050.0%
Total:119 10021.2%

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
Steven BakerWycombeCon (front bench)no
Peter BoneWellingboroughCon (front bench)no
Christopher ChopeChristchurchCon (front bench)no
Philip DaviesShipleyCon (front bench)tellno
David NuttallBury NorthCon (front bench)tellno
Matthew OffordHendonConno
Jacob Rees-MoggNorth East SomersetCon (front bench)no
Iain StewartMilton Keynes SouthCon (front bench)no
Alan ReidArgyll and ButeLDem (front bench)no

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