Motion to Sit in Private — 24 Oct 2014 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 |

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.

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
Mark SpencerSherwoodCon (front bench)tellaye
Andrew TurnerIsle of WightCon (front bench)tellaye
Richard BaconSouth NorfolkCon (front bench)no
Peter BottomleyWorthing WestCon (front bench)no
Karen BradleyStaffordshire MoorlandsCon (front bench)no
Julian BrazierCanterburyCon (front bench)no
Geoffrey Clifton-BrownThe CotswoldsCon (front bench)no
Therese CoffeySuffolk CoastalCon (front bench)no
George EusticeCamborne and RedruthCon (front bench)no
Edward GarnierHarboroughCon (front bench)no
Robert GoodwillScarborough and WhitbyCon (front bench)no
Helen GrantMaidstone and The WealdCon (front bench)no
Damian HindsEast HampshireCon (front bench)tellno
Philip HolloboneKetteringCon (front bench)no
Bernard JenkinHarwich and North EssexCon (front bench)no
Andrea LeadsomSouth NorthamptonshireCon (front bench)no
Brandon LewisGreat YarmouthCon (front bench)no
Anne MiltonGuildfordCon (front bench)no
John PenroseWeston-Super-MareCon (front bench)tellno
Jacob Rees-MoggNorth East SomersetCon (front bench)no
Amber RuddHastings and RyeCon (front bench)no
Richard ShepherdAldridge-BrownhillsConno
Julian SturdyYork OuterConno
Desmond SwayneNew Forest WestCon (front bench)no
Hugo SwireEast DevonCon (front bench)no
Edward TimpsonCrewe and NantwichCon (front bench)no
Heidi AlexanderLewisham EastLab (minister)no
Graham AllenNottingham NorthLab (minister)no
Stella CreasyWalthamstowLab (minister)no
Jim FitzpatrickPoplar and LimehouseLab (minister)no
Meg MunnSheffield, HeeleyLabno
Bridget PhillipsonHoughton and Sunderland SouthLab (minister)no
Emma ReynoldsWolverhampton North EastLab (minister)no
John SpellarWarleyLab (minister)no
Stephen TimmsEast HamLab (minister)no
Simon HughesBermondsey and Old SouthwarkLDem (front bench)no
Adrian SandersTorbayLDem (front bench)no

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