MPs vote for return to late night sittings
MPs have voted to return to family “unfriendly” late-night hours on Tuesday.
Following a three-hour debate yesterday, MPs backed a return to the hours of 14:30 in the afternoon to 22:30 at night on Tuesdays.
MPs voted 292 to 225 for later sittings.
Peter Hain, Leader of the Commons, tried to rally MPs against a return to what he dubbed “Victorian” style hours.
He told MPs: “We would look very odd, if after only two years’ trial, we reverted to hours designed for the lifestyle of our Victorian predecessors, when MPs were earning a living during the day.”
But Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, Eric Forth, said the modernisation agenda introduced in 2003 had starved and rationed MPs’ debating time.
“The Government is then trying to squeeze all the business into the hours that suit the Government and the MPs.
“That is not, in my opinion what Parliament is about. Parliament should be holding the Government to account. The Government should not be telling MPs when they must go home.”
MPs agreed to retain Wednesday hours from 11:30 to 19:30 and to start Thursday sittings at 10:30.
The changes will take effect after the next general election.
Under a new modernisation regime pushed forward by Trade and Industry Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, the Government transformed the culture at Westminster by finishing business at seven o’clock in the evening to give parliamentarians more time to spend with their families.
Labour MP for Cardiff North, Julie Morgan, said the MPs’ decision last night was a “step backwards” towards the “men’s club” culture.
With less than one fifth of MPs women, Ms Morgan said the decision would deter female applicants from contesting seats as MPs.
Yvette Cooper, Labour MP for Pontefract and Castleford, said Parliament ought to move into the 21st century rather than move back into the 19th century.
“The idea that all the really important debates we have had in the last few years on things like Iraq and tuition fees where there have been very passionate debates in the House of Commons, the idea that some of those votes and those debates could have been taken at one or two ‘clock in the morning I just think is mad and it makes us look mad.”
