2.2.4 – The ways in which Parliament interacts with the Executive
The Mandelson Saga continue to bite at Keir Starmer last week as a debate was held in the House of Commons over whether to refer him to the Privileges Committee of the House of Commons.
The Committee of Privileges is a Select Committee of the House of Commons. Its remit is to investigate issues relating to privileges and contempt of Parliament. Essentially, its role is to investigate whether an MP has breached the rules and customs of the House of Commons.
Like other Committees, the Committee of Privileges is made up of a cross-section of MPs from across different parties. It is currently chaired by Alberta Costa, a Conservative MP, and has members from the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. When an issue is bought to their attention by MPs, they will investigate it and report their findings to the House of Commons. They can recommend sanctions, ranging from the requirement of an apology to a suspension. If an MP is suspended for 10 sitting days or 14 calendar days, they may also then be subject to the Recall of MPs Act (2015).
The Privileges Committee hit the headlines during the premiership of Boris Johnson. After Partygate, where Johnson was alleged to have mislead the House of Commons over whether illegal gatherings had taken place in Downing Street during lockdown, the Privileges Committee investigated Johnson. The committee was then chaired by Harriet Harman, a veteran Labour MP. They spent over a year gathering evidence, including from Johnson himself. When the Committee published its report in June 2023 it said that Johnson had deliberately misled the House of Commons on multiple occasions and ordered that he should be suspended from the House for 90 days. This would have triggered the conditions of the Recall of MPs Act. However, by this point, Johnson had resigned as both Conservative Party Leader and as an MP, avoiding the ignominy of being the first former Prime Minister to be recalled by their constituents.
The vote in Parliament on Tuesday was a vote on whether to ask the Committee on Privileges to begin an investigation in Keir Starmer’s statements over the Mandelson Affair. The debate was opened by Kemi Badenoch who said that it was “obvious” that Starmer has misled the House of Commons. The debate finished with a vote. Importantly, Labour decided to whip their MPs, telling them they should vote against the motion or potentially risk having the whip withdrawn. The Government called the vote a “stunt” that was engineered solely to attempt to hut the Government in advance of the Local and Devolved Elections on 7th May. With a whipped vote, it was almost inconceivable that the government would lose. They duly won the vote by 335-223. However, there were Labour MPs who rebelled and abstained.
Rebelled: Aspana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Mary Kelly, Imran Hussain, Brian Leishman, Emma Lewell, Rebecca Long Bailey, Andy McDonald, John McDonnell, Grahame Morris, Luke Myer, Kate Osborne, Cat Smith and Nadia Whittome.
A total of 53 Labour MPs abstained.
Whilst the Mandelson affair may not be immediately terminal, there is no doubt that it has continued to weaken Starmer’s political authority. Importantly, this has happened during a period when he was receiving a small bounce due to his handling of the situation in Iran. It was also damaging to take place so close the Local Elections, whereby Labour candidates want to be talking about their plans for local democracy, not trying to defend the Prime Minister’s handling of a political scandal.