Motion to Sit in Private — 14 Sep 2012 at 09:30

The majority of MPs voted not to hold a private session of the House of Commons.

The text of the motion rejected in the vote was:

  • That the House sit in private.

The House of Commons' Standing Order No. 163 says:

  • If at any sitting of the House... any Member moves 'That the House sit in private' the Speaker... shall forthwith put the question 'That the House sit in private', and such question, though opposed, may be decided after the expiration of the time for opposed business, but such a Motion may be made no more than once in any sitting.

Moving the motion to sit in private is almost always a procedural tactic. By ensuring the defeat of a motion to sit in private at the beginning of the sitting, the mover makes it impossible for any member to move the motion during a subsequent debate.

If such a motion is brought during the debate on a Bill, and fewer than 40 MPs vote in it, then the debate ends immediately regardless of the result (following Standing Order 44). Such an ending of debate occurred on the 14th of March 2003. The points of order following that division show MPs questioning the appropriateness of the tactic.

Moving a motion to sit in private is often done first thing on a Friday morning. Moving the motion ensures it can't be moved later in the day, when MPs might have returned to their constituencies for the weekend and too few members may be present to reach the 40 member threshold leading to the discussion of the business before the house (typically private members' Bills) being brought to an end.

See also What is a motion to sit in private? from the PublicWhip FAQ.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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All Votes Cast - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party are marked in red. Also shows which MPs were ministers at the time of this vote. You can also see every eligible MP including those who did not vote in this division.

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Naomi LongBelfast EastAlliance (front bench)no
Therese CoffeySuffolk CoastalContellaye
Charles WalkerBroxbourneCon (front bench)tellaye
Stuart AndrewPudseyCon (front bench)no
Steve BarclayNorth East CambridgeshireCon (front bench)no
Gregory BarkerBexhill and BattleCon (front bench)no
Nicholas BolesGrantham and StamfordCon (front bench)no
Peter BoneWellingboroughCon (front bench)no
Robert BucklandSouth SwindonCon (front bench)no
Neil CarmichaelStroudCon (front bench)no
Greg ClarkTunbridge WellsCon (front bench)no
Oliver ColvilePlymouth, Sutton and DevonportCon (front bench)no
Stephen CrabbPreseli PembrokeshireCon (front bench)no
Philip DaviesShipleyCon (front bench)no
Alan DuncanRutland and MeltonCon (front bench)no
Mark FrancoisRayleigh and WickfordCon (front bench)no
Sam GyimahEast SurreyCon (front bench)no
Greg HandsChelsea and FulhamCon (front bench)no
Philip HolloboneKetteringCon (front bench)no
Gerald HowarthAldershotConno
Bernard JenkinHarwich and North EssexCon (front bench)no
Phillip LeeBracknellCon (front bench)no
Julian LewisNew Forest EastCon (front bench)no
Patrick McLoughlinDerbyshire DalesCon (front bench)no
Esther McVeyWirral WestCon (front bench)no
Anne MiltonGuildfordCon (front bench)tellno
Penny MordauntPortsmouth NorthCon (front bench)no
Nicky MorganLoughboroughCon (front bench)tellno
David NuttallBury NorthCon (front bench)no
Richard OttawayCroydon SouthCon (front bench)no
Stephen PhillipsSleaford and North HykehamCon (front bench)no
Jacob Rees-MoggNorth East SomersetCon (front bench)no
Amber RuddHastings and RyeCon (front bench)no
Chloe SmithNorwich NorthCon (front bench)no
Anna SoubryBroxtoweCon (front bench)no
Iain StewartMilton Keynes SouthCon (front bench)no
Edward TimpsonCrewe and NantwichCon (front bench)no
Shailesh VaraNorth West CambridgeshireCon (front bench)no
Sarah WollastonTotnesCon (front bench)no
Jeremy WrightKenilworth and SouthamCon (front bench)no
George YoungNorth West HampshireConno
Heidi AlexanderLewisham EastLab (minister)no
Anne BeggAberdeen SouthLab (minister)no
Hilary BennLeeds CentralLab (minister)no
Luciana BergerLiverpool, WavertreeLab (minister)no
Tom BlenkinsopMiddlesbrough South and East ClevelandLab (minister)no
Kevin BrennanCardiff WestLab (minister)no
Stella CreasyWalthamstowLab (minister)no
Jim CunninghamCoventry SouthLabno
Jim FitzpatrickPoplar and LimehouseLab (minister)no
Paul FlynnNewport WestLab (minister)no
Helen GoodmanBishop AucklandLab (minister)no
Tom HarrisGlasgow SouthLab (minister)no
Kevan JonesNorth DurhamLab (minister)no
Sadiq KhanTootingLab (minister)no
Andrew SmithOxford EastLabno
John SpellarWarleyLab (minister)no
Mark TamiAlyn and DeesideLab (minister)no
Norman BakerLewesLDem (front bench)no
David HeathSomerton and FromeLDem (front bench)no
Simon HughesBermondsey and Old SouthwarkLDem (front bench)no
John PughSouthportLDem (front bench)no

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