voting on bills

• Voting on Bills


  1. A bill is a prospective law

  2. If the Parliament passes it, then is considered law

  3. In order for a bill to pass, it has to receive the votes of more than 50% of the MPs voting on it

  4. MPs have influence because if the government wants the bill to become an Act, they have to convince enough MPs to vote for it

  5. MPs may be able to request changes or pressure the Government to delay parts of the law in exchange for their support

  6. This allows them to hold the Government to account, because if the government tries to pass a law that gives them too much power, then MPs can vote against it and stop it from passing
• Recent example of the government being defeated by MPs on a bill

  • In June 2020, the Government wanted to introduce a rule that if an MP was going to be suspended or kicked out of Parliament for abuse or bullying, then that should be debated in the House of Commons
  • Many MPs were worried that this would result in people being afraid to come forward, for fear of having their reputation attacked in Parliament
  • Chris Bryant MP suggested an amendment to the bill that instead of having a debate, there should just be a vote
• The influence of MPs is limited when voting on bills

  • Because of the influence of political parties
  • If the MP's party are against the Bill, they may put pressure on that representative in order to vote against it, even if they support it
  • This is called 'whipping', and the MPs who enforce it are called Party Whips
  • Currently, members of the governing Conservative party are told not to vote against the government by their whips, and this reduces their ability to hold the government to account