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Flitwick Town Council calls on Nadine Dorries to resign as MP in open letter
(www.bedfordshirelive.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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UK Politics
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I wonder how many people would be willing to sign a recall petition if they were aware of what a recall petition was?
A recall petition is only available under very limited circumstances.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05089/
Nadine has neither been suspended nor convicted of a crime. So there's no petition.
Even if there were, the threshold for the petition succeeding is only 10% of registered voters. And you can bet that opposition parties would easily he able to drum up that level of support.
So if an MP was to go rogue and say, I dunno, decide to completely ignore their responsibility as an MP there's no way for the people of the constituency to get rid?
That's what the law says.
The MP might not be selected by their party to stand in the next election. But there's no law about MPs behaving in a way contrary to the wishes of their electorate.
Indeed, how could an MP do their job properly if there was? If they've got a slim majority there would be almost endless recall petitions from opposition parties.
If they voted against their party, they could be fired by the party against the wishes of the voters.
What bar so you want to set for voters' votes to be invalidated? At the moment we have criminal acts and suspension. What other thresholds would you add - and how would you stop people from abusing them?
It's not for votes to be invalidated. It's for votes to be retaken in light of new information.
I agree you can't have anybody raising a petition with no controls. That would be too chaotic, but if the councils in the constituency are calling for it, it seems reasonable to allow a petition / poll to recall.