MPs from smaller parties including the SNP and Reform UK have criticised “unfair” committee selection and called for greater representation.
On Thursday the Government proposed a motion to establish a modernisation committee that would consider reforms to House of Commons procedures, standards, and working practices.
The Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell said the modernisation committee would “bring a more strategic lens” to implementing the recommendations of existing committees.
The party balance of committee membership is intended to reflect the balance of seats in the House, and membership elections are held within each party.
SNP MP Kirsty Blackman proposed an amendment to the motion that would require one member from each party to be represented on the 14 person committee, that went unselected by the Speaker.
During the debate Ms Blackman said: “Given the breakdown that committees are likely to fall in, does (Ms Powell) understand that only three parties will be represented on that committee and it would be possible to flex it slightly and still keep it relatively small, but have voices from more than just three parties?”
Ms Powell replied that the make up “is an unfortunate case of the mathematics of how these things are considered across all select committees” but sought to assure Ms Blackman that she would “commit to there being regular and meaningful engagement with any and all parties represented in this house.”
Reform UK MP Lee Anderson (Ashfield) intervened to say: “This for me seems a little bit unfair.
“We have a political party represented in this House that got over four million votes at the last election and we will have no representation whatsoever on the committees.
“Yet we’ve got a party (the Liberal Democrats), they’ve got three and a half million votes that will have plenty of representation on the committees, does the Leader think that’s fair?”
Ms Powell responded: “The House is considered in terms of its members not in terms of the popular vote, and that is a consequence of those formulas which are long standing and have brought about effective representation on many select committees.”
The Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice kept pressure on Ms Powell, telling her: “(Mr Anderson) has just made a very good case and asked you a specific question. Is it fair?
“And by your lack of reply, you I think implicitly agree. It’s not fair.
“And you have it in your power to change this in the matter of fairness and listening to smaller parties and I think constituents all over the country, if you don’t agree with that, will find that absolutely astonishing.”
The Leader of the House said: “What is fair is that this House is made up of members of Parliament who are elected by their constituency and then subsequent subcommittees, if you like select committees, of this House are then made up a proportion of those members of this House, that is what is fair, and that is always been the case.
“It could be the case that as an incoming Government with a really clear mandate to change and to rebuild trust in politics and restore respect in Parliament and with a very large majority in this House, we could have proceeded without trying to take the House with us, without setting up a committee, by just by bringing forward on a diktat basis, various motions to take this forward.
“I absolutely did not want to take that approach.”
A further voice in support of representation for smaller parties was the DUP’s Jim Shannon.
The MP for Strangford said that when it comes to “more parochial” issues such as the Northern Ireland or Scottish affairs committee there should be more space for smaller parties, adding that he was “ever mindful” of the right of the Government to have a majority.
