These are the Labour and Lib Dem MPs who voted against their respective party lines by voting against Third Reading of the Human-Animal Crossbreeding (Legalisation), Babies (Spare Parts) and Fatherhood (Abolition) Bill:
Joe Benton - Bootle
Tom Clarke - Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill
John Cummings - Easington
Jim Dobbin - Heywood & Middleton
David Drew - Stroud
Frank Field - Birkenhead
Robert Flello - Stoke-on-Trent South (PPS)
Ruth Kelly - Bolton West
Andrew MacKinlay - Thurrock
Rosemary McKenna - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East
Denis Murphy - Wansbeck
Albert Owen - Ynys Môn
Greg Pope - Hyndburn
Andy Reed - Loughborough
Alan Simpson - Nottingham South
David Taylor - North West Leicestershire
Alan Beith - Berwick-upon-Tweed
Vincent Cable - Twickenham (front bench)
Mike Hancock - Portsmouth South
David Heath - Somerton & Frome
John Hemming - Birmingham, Yardley
Mark Hunter - Cheadle (front bench)
Charles Kennedy - Ross, Skye & Lochaber
Greg Mulholland - Leeds North West (front bench)
John Pugh - Southport (front bench)
Alan Reid - Argyll & Bute (front bench)
Daniel Rogerson - North Cornwall (front bench)
Paul Rowen - Rochdale (front bench)
Bob Russell - Colchester (front bench)
Andrew Stunell - Hazel Grove
Sarah Teather - Brent East (front bench)
Steve Webb - Northavon (front bench)
Please note that there were no Plaid Cymru votes against, that a huge number Tories defied the official party line and voted for this Bill, and that one third of SNP MPs voted in favour of it.
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Worth pointing out that there was no Tory or Lib Dem "party line" - members of both parties had a free vote. So it's misleading to claim that any Tory or Lib Dem MPs defied their party lines.
ReplyDeleteTell that to dear old http://www.publicwhip.org.uk
ReplyDeleteAnd this does of course illustrate just how supportive of traditional values the Tories (and the Tartan Tories, who used to be much sounder on these things) really aren't.
The Public Whip website calculates automatically on the assumption that the majority vote for each party is that party's whipped line (this is because there is no official publication of the whip). That assumption normally holds good, but it is totally inappropriate for free votes, so you need to treat the website with caution on these occasions.
ReplyDeleteOn this occasion, both the Lib Dems and the Tories sought to make political capital out of the fact that they were giving their MPs a free vote while Labour was whipping its MPs (David Cameron, you may recall, devoted some time at PMQs a few months ago to this very topic) so their free vote is a matter of public record.
"The Public Whip website calculates automatically on the assumption that the majority vote for each party is that party's whipped line"
ReplyDeleteNot in this case, it didn't.
Can you put the link to the relevant bit of the public whip site? I can't find the page you're referring to.
ReplyDeleteJust search it for "Human Fertilisation and Embryolgy Bill", or for the name of one of the rebels.
ReplyDeleteThe one for Third Reading, Charles. The easiest one to find.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
ReplyDeleteThe Tories who voted for this Bill broke the whip, according to the acknowledged expert on parliamentary rebellions.
And in so doing, they demonstrated, not least by their sheer numbers, just how conservative the Tory Party now isn't.
Charles doesn't like this fact, does he? I wonder why not.
ReplyDeleteI think we all know why not.
ReplyDeleteWho's "the acknowledged expert on parliamentary rebellions" you refer to?
ReplyDeleteThere's no mention of the whip or of "party lines" on the Public Whip's page on the third reading. It just talks about votes against the majority for that party. Am I looking at the wrong page?
ReplyDeletePublic Whip.
ReplyDeleteInvaluable.
Well, unless you are saying that the MPs listed in this post did not vote as suggested?
How does Cameron account for this number of rebels (including very senior ones), if that is what they are?
Or how does he explain to conservatives that there was no party line to vote against this of all Bills, if there wasn't?
Either way, Cameron is screwed on this one. Isn't he, Charles?
one third of SNP MPs voted in favour
ReplyDeleteobviously the voice of small town Scotland no more
Obviously.
ReplyDeleteThey're not rebels. Cameron gave his MPs a free vote, so by definition none of his MPs were rebels. See this extract from Prime Minister's Questions when Cameron attacked Gordon Brown for refusing to give Labour MPs a free vote on the Bill, or this BBC report on yesterday's votes which says "The Conservative Party, which permitted its MPs a free vote on the bill..."
ReplyDeletehow can there be Tory rebels if it was a free Tory vote? I'm really confused.
ReplyDeleteHow can there be a "Conservative" Party which allows a free vote on something like this?
ReplyDeleteWe are all really confused...
Though not as confused as Cameron is.
It's very common for parties to give their MPs free votes on bills like this which deal with moral issues on which there is a lack of consensus and on which support and opposition cuts across party lines.
ReplyDeleteI'm not denying taht it is "very common". That is beside the point.
ReplyDeleteOf course, they have plenty of form here (abortion up to birth, divorce on demand...), but what are the Tories FOR?
If there had been BPA MPs, would they have had a free vote on this or would you have whipped them to vote against it?
ReplyDeleteI think the relevant document on our website is perfectly clear on that one.
ReplyDelete"The British People’s Alliance is the pro-life, pro-family, pro-worker and anti-war party of economically social democratic, morally and socially conservative British and Commonwealth patriots."
ReplyDeleteSeems pretty clear to me.
If Labour can whip people to vote for all sorts of anti-life and anti-family measures, usually joined by the Lib Dems, and if all the Tories can put up instead is a free vote, then the gap in the market for a pro-life and pro-family party as such is obvious.
See a whole post to go up in the next few minutes.
ReplyDelete