ENGLISH votes for English laws should be scrapped, Dame Eleanor Laing has insisted, as she vies to replace John Bercow as Commons Speaker, pledging to bring kindness, courtesy and calm to what has become something of a “Jekyll and Hyde Parliament”.
The Paisley-born MP is competing with a number of colleagues, including her fellow Deputy Speaker Sir Lyndsay Hoyle, the favourite, and the former Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman, to be the next Commons umpire.
“The first thing that is uppermost in my mind is that there’s an urgent need to restore confidence and respect in our parliamentary system and in the House of Commons itself,” Dame Eleanor told The Herald.
“People who elect us deserve to be able to rely on us to behave with decency, dignity and courtesy and that is what I want to encourage in the chamber. I have done that during the time I have been Deputy Speaker. I have exerted authority with kindness and courtesy and the attitude and atmosphere I have generated from the Chair is one of keeping things calm rather than whipping up aggression.”
Throughout the interview, the MP for Epping Forest since 1997 chose her words carefully and one had to read between the lines to get a sense of what she really thought of Mr Bercow’s Speakership; good on modernity, not so good on his sometimes forceful treatment of MPs.
“I believe in doing things properly; I believe in the rule of law,” she insisted, adding: “The way in which we make our laws should not only be fair but be seen to be fair.”
The Scot, who has been Deputy Speaker for six years, explained how in some ways Parliament had developed a split personality.
“If you have MPs from all different parties in the queue in the tea-room, everyone is absolutely lovely. People are laughing and joking with one another and having nice conversations about their families. The atmosphere is great.
“When you have same group of people on a quiet Thursday afternoon debating something to do with autistic children, you still get a group of people working well together for the common good, acting in a courteous and pleasant way.
“Then we come onto PMQs or the Budget debate or Brexit. Aggression takes the place of argument. High octane, unpleasant interaction. That’s a point where we have to take action to calm things down.”
Dame Eleanor, who this week was at the sharp end of a Government whip shouting aggressively at her from just a few feet away during the early election debate, suggested it was an “age-old reality” that women did things differently from men.
“The less testosterone the better the behaviour,” she declared.
Asked if she was suggesting Westminster had become something of a Jekyll and Hyde Parliament, she replied: “Yes. We have. That’s right. It is almost Jekyll and Hyde. It’s so sad we are observed to behave in a certain way when 70 per cent of the time we behave decently. I want that to be 100 per cent of the time. It’s a challenge but it’s not impossible and it could be achieved in pretty short order.
“We’re going to have a new Parliament and a new Speaker and if I were in the Chair I could get this new Parliament off to a good start.”
As well as calling for a “comprehensive review” of how the Commons works, including how to improve relations between Westminster and Holyrood, Dame Eleanor also made clear that one policy adopted following the 2014 independence referendum was not fit for purpose: English Votes for English Laws or EVEL for short.
This law, which requires matters affecting just England to have a majority of English MPs to pass, has proved controversial with a charge of creating two classes of MPs and another that it politicises the role of the Speaker as he or she determines when EVEL should be applied.
“It’s not working well. I never liked it, I never supported it. I see it working from the Chair in a way which people have not paid attention to. It ought to be reviewed.”
Asked if she personally believed it should be abolished, the Scot replied: “Yes. It’s a very good principle that you shouldn’t make long-term laws to solve short-term problems. Another good example is the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. A long-term law to solve a short-term problem in 2010 which has backfired badly.”
She pointed out that if the FTPA was not scrapped, then “we’ll have to have every General Election in December”.
Having spent another afternoon schmoozing with colleagues in the Commons tea-room, Dame Eleanor seemed upbeat, saying how colleagues had been pledging support for her candidacy.
“I have had such good reactions from colleagues over the last few days I have been touched by the support I have had and how lovely people are being,” she purred.
But there was a rider. “Come on, this is an election within Parliament; not everyone who said they would vote for me will do so. But it’s very nice for people to come up to you and wish you good luck and say: “I’m with you.’ Why bother if you’re not?”
Asked if she was confident she could win, there was an extended pause; which might have given the game away. “I…think there is every chance I can do it.”
Dame Eleanor and the rest of us will know on Monday afternoon just how MPs have really voted. The next Speaker’s task will be to banish Mr Hyde. Good luck.
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