Right To Recall MPs To Be Included In Queen's Speech

Today’s Queen’s speech is expected to include the right of members of the public to recall their Member of Parliament, Breitbart London has learned.. The legislation comes after a campaign by Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith and the campaign group 38 Degrees, as previously reported by Breitbart London.

Ever since the 2009 expenses scandal in which a number of MPs were caught submitting false claims, the reputation of the House of Commons has sat at an all-time low. Recall is seen as a way to rebuild confidence. 

While the Conservative Party as a whole is positive about the proposal it is widely believed the Liberal Democrats had previously refused to support plans to introduce recall. Today’s speech will show that the Conservatives have finally got their way on the subject.

There is likely to be some debate about the exact details of the proposal. Purists had called for an absolute right to recall MPs as long as a certain percentage of the public signed a petition to rerun the election. However the government had previously discussed only allowing a petition to recall if an MP had been found guilty of serious wrong doing.

This would effectively put the power of recall in the hands of either House of Commons officials or the Standards Committee, and therefore would therefore strengthen disciplinary procedures in Parliament but not add to democracy. 

The inclusion of recall in the Queen’s Speech may be a response to the resignation of Maria Miller. As Culture Secretary, Miller was criticised for her actions during an investigation that recommended she repay £45,000 of wrongly claimed expenses. 

She initially refused to resign as Culture Secretary, but eventually fell on her sword after generating days of bad headlines for the government. She is still refusing to stand down as an MP and her local electorate currently have no way of removing her.

The 38 Degrees petition to put recall on the statute books now has 165,000 signatures and reads: “We call on you to support a recall bill that puts the power in voters hands, so that if, in between general elections, enough voters were dissatisfied enough with their MP to petition for a by-election, they could.”