MPs ran out of time to debate whether the UK should recognise the state of Palestine.
Independent MP Shockat Adam (Leicester South) had seconds left at the end of Parliament’s Friday sitting to present his Palestine Statehood (Recognition) (No 2) Bill, and lost his opportunity to make the case for the law change.
The pro-Gaza MP’s Bill was rescheduled for debate on January 24, but is unlikely to be considered as it now falls to the bottom of the list of private members’ Bills, the law reforms individual MPs champion outside the Government’s agenda.
The Bill would have recognised a Palestinian state based on borders agreed before 1967, and would have also conferred full diplomatic status to Palestine’s mission to the UK.
As the Commons reached the end of a Friday dominated by a Bill aimed at legalising assisted dying for terminally ill people, two animal rights-related Bills were also given the backing of MPs.
Attempts to crack down on puppy and kitten smuggling, as well as illegal importation of ferrets, won the backing of the Government and passed its second reading.
Lib Dem MPs in the chamber clapped when the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill cleared the parliamentary hurdle.
“How dare we clap,” Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said as he reprimanded them.
Sir Lindsay also joked that he had “had enough with Roger”, as he addressed the clapping.
The Who’s Roger Daltrey was reprimanded by the Speaker on Wednesday, when he was heard clapping in the Commons gallery during Prime Minister’s Questions.
A Bill aimed at tightening the law around livestock worrying, the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Bill, was also nodded through to its next stage by MPs.
