Parliament’s summer recess hasn’t put politics on hold, but the return of MPs to Westminster this week marks a gearshift in the operation of the new Labour government. The king’s speech in July set out an ambitious programme to change the way Britain is run: a new wave of devolution; new structures for the delivery and ownership of public services; new workers’ rights; and more.
This could be the most consequential session since the battle to settle the terms of Brexit. In their final years in power, the Conservatives ran out of ideas and were too divided to develop policies of substance. Parliament was underemployed or kept busy with ill-drafted bills conceived more as glorified campaign slogans (“stop the boats”, for example) than as practical statutes.
Prior to that, the authority of the Commons was already in decline. Pro-Brexit fervour among Tories bred contempt for the legislature, exemplified by Boris Johnson’s illegal attempt at prorogation in 2019. MPs were then marginalised during the pandemic response. This year’s general election provides the opportunity for a reset. Voters sent a record 335 rookie legislators – including three Sinn Féin MPs who don’t take their seats – to the Commons, more than half of the total. The more salient number is, of course, 158 – the Labour majority that is big enough to ensure that Sir Keir Starmer’s plans become law without much obstacle.
Election victory on that scale is conventionally viewed as a recipe for executive arrogance, since Britain’s constitution does not impose many checks on a prime minister with command of the Commons. The reality is more subtle. Large majorities can make the official opposition less effective. Seven Labour MPs have already had the whip suspended for supporting a Scottish National party amendment to the king’s speech calling for an end to the two-child limit on benefit entitlement, a misery-spreading policy. There has to be a disagreement with the proposals of the party to trigger an act of dissension. In the future, it would be better to seek to win over prospective rebels with more than demands of loyalty.
The election of new select committee chairs in the coming weeks will provide an early indication of how effectively the new parliament will hold the government to account. Authoritative, independent-minded Labour figures will be needed for the departmental committees that have been allocated, by the usual opaque formula, to the ruling party – Treasury, foreign, defence, work and pensions, energy and net zero among them.
The next Conservative chair of the home affairs committee should be someone capable of engaging intelligently with the detail of crime and immigration policy, not a grandstanding culture warrior. The Liberal Democrats will want to use the chairs of the health and environment select committees to carve out a political profile for themselves commensurate with their newly enhanced Commons representation.
The real test will come once the substantial bills that will define political debate for the new session are published. After years of parliament being sidelined or consumed by hyper-partisan conflict and shallow theatrics, the process of legislative scrutiny has been neglected. This is not the aspect of MPs’ work that gets the most public recognition, but it is central to their constitutional duties. With a new government embarking on a substantial agenda, it is vital that a new generation of serious parliamentarians, sitting on both sides of the House, rises to the occasion.
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• This article was amended on 2 September 2024 to correct a reference to the Scottish “Nationalist” party to the Scottish National party.
