SNP MPs Hannah Bardell and Kirsty Blackman have posted a Twitter video from inside the Commons voting lobby to express their outrage at the "archaic" Westminster voting system during the passage of the UK Government's Brexit Bill.
With limited time for debate on Tuesday to just six hours, MPs this evening took part in 11 continuous votes - each one taking 15 minutes - which effectively meant that discussion on the Lords amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill was severely curtailed.
By this evening, it looked highly likely that there would be little or no time left for debate on the important subjects of the Northern Irish border or the Scottish devolved settlement.
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Ms Bardell branded how Westminster's traditional voting had cut out debate on important parts of the Brexit Bill "a total shambles".
Here’s @KirstySNP and I in the lobby explaining why the House of Commons is so archaic.
— Hannah Bardell (@HannahB4LiviMP) June 12, 2018
We’re 4 votes into 11 of the day and it’s already taken 45 mins.
11 votes = 3 hours and no time for the Devolution amendments to be debated or Scotland’s voice to be heard. #EUWithdrawalbill pic.twitter.com/fG6amauMbI
In a highly unusual move, the Nationalist MP, who has previously called for electronic voting as it is used at Holyrood and in other parliaments, broadcast her thoughts from inside the Commons voting lobby.
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When it was put to her that this is likely to breach parliamentary protocol, she told The Herald that if she could not highlight the parliamentary process without getting into trouble then "what does that tell us...democracy in secret is pretty appalling".
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Ms Bardell added: "People deserve to know how things work and how long the archaic voting system and processes take."
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