Constitutional reform since 1997 and debates on further reform

5 NL promises of constitutional reform

1. UK Bill of Rights

2. Elected upper chamber (Lords)

3. Proportional electoral system

4. Devolution

5. Referendums on maj constitutional reforms

4 key categories in which NL constitutional changes can be classified

1. Democratisation

2. Devolution

3. Modernisation

4. Extension of rights

4 examples of democratisation

1. Referendums

2. Electoral Commission creation

3. Voting systems creation

4. Political finance reform

NL and referendums

• Held them on devolution (3 + London)

• BUT didn’t hold them on Eurozone entry, electoral reform and European Constitution

Electoral Commission creation

• As part of 2000 PPERA

  • BUT was placed under gov’t supervision in the 2022 Elections Act which limits its independence

5 roles of EC

1. Regulate party and election finances

2. Register political parties

3. Oversee electoral registers

4. Give guidance and oversight in elections and referendums

5. (Oversee distribution of seats in 🇪🇺 elections)

Voting systems

• Introduced more proportional ones for new elections — devolved assemblies, European Plmt, elected mayors

• None on Westminster despite manifesto promise, probably because of their incredibly large majority (just like removing hereditary peers benefited them as they were mostly C)

3 elements of political finance reform

1. Limited donations fro people not on electoral register

2. Placed limits on party spending in run-up to election (£30,000/constituency)

3. All donations over £7,500 have to be declared

Devolution under NL

• Devolved gov’ts in NI (ended Troubles), 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 and London

• BUT ‘no’ vote in ref for a NE regional assembly and only 12 authorities adopted new elected mayor model

3 elements of NL modernisation

1. HoL reform but not fully elected (intended to go this far)

2. Judicial reform with 2005 CRA

3. HoC modernisation — changes to sitting hours, PMQs and additional debates held in Westminster Hall

4 NL actions that extended rights

1. HRA 1998

2. Equalities Act 2010

3. FOI 2000

4. Bill of Rights and Responsibilities (but not law)

Blair’s later reflections on 2000 FOI

• Stupid

• Needed to ensure gov’t confidentiality

• Removed complexity and nuance to issues

2 issues that arose from devolution

1. West Lothian Qs (EVEL)

2. NI Assembly suspended after disagreements

9 promised constitutional reforms under coalition agreement

1. AV referendum

2. Elected Lords

3. Fixed term Plmts

4. Reduction in HoC size

5. Greater Scottish and Welsh powers

6. Registration of lobby groups

7. Right to recall MPs

8. Require referendum on future transfer of powers to Europe

9. Reconsideration of HRA

2011 AV referendum

• LD campaigned for LD

• C and L campaigned to keep FPTP

• Decisive in keeping FPTP

Coalition elected HoL

• Wanted to turn HoL into a Senate — 450 elected members, 15-year turn

  • 91 MPs voted against even debating it

2011 FTPA

• Guaranteed elections would be held every 5 years unless no confidence vote or 2/3 HoC agreed early GE

  • LD pushed for it to avoid being kicked out as soon as C would get a majority

• Replaced by 2022 Dissolution and Calling of Plmt Act

2 examples of FTPA 2011 getting circumvented

• June 2017 L voted in favour of early GE to not appear weak

• December 2019 Johnson failed to meet majority 3x so passed bill called Early Plmtary GE Act that bypassed it and allowed him to hold an early GE

Recall of MPs Act 2015

• Petition signed by 10% of constituents

• Only in cases of serving MP being given a prison sentence of suspended by HoC

  • NOT: poor performance or crossing the floor

5 examples of MPs getting recalled

1. Fiona Onasanya L recalled after being imprisoned for lying about driving a speeding car

2. Christopher Davies C recalled over false expense claims

3. Margaret Ferrier SNP recalled after suspension from HoC after breaking COVID-19 regulations WHILE having COVID

4. Peter Bone C recalled after being suspended for 6 weeks for bullying and sexual misconduct

5. Scott Benton C resigned after recall petition triggered after being suspended by agreeing to lobby ministers on behalf of gambling industry in return for payment

Boris Johnson and recall petitions

• Was recommended to be suspended for 90 days after Partygate so recall petition would follow

  • His resignation was seen as an attempt to avoid this

Lobbying Bill 2014

• Registered all lobbying groups and limited lobbyist spending on GE campaigns after Cameron called lobbying the ‘next great scandal waiting to happen’

• BUT came back in 2015 with Rifkind and Straw and then again 2021 Greensill

🇪🇺 Act 2011

• Required referendums for new treaties transferring powers 🇬🇧 → 🇪🇺

  • Form of UK Sovereignty Bill

British Bill of Rights coalition

• Favoured by majority of 🇬🇧

  • Agreed to by LD if a citizen’s convention was set up to consider a codified constitution

2014 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 devolution

• New powers over energy, transport, environment and elections

  • 2015 — suggested referendum on setting own income tax rates

2014 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 devo-max

• Deviate from 🇬🇧 income tax levels by 3%

• Greater powers on all issues except defence and foreign affairs

3 reforms under Camerons 2015-6 gov’t

1. EVEL — ‘Grand Committee’ stage to legislative process but other MPs still had a vote on the final bill

2. Withdrawal from 🇪🇺

3. 2016 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Act and 2017 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Act gave (greater) tax-raising powers

2 reforms under May

1. 🇪🇺 (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 to instigate Article 50

2. 🇪🇺 (Withdrawal) Act 2018

4 promised constitutional reforms under Johnson

1. Remove FTPA

2. Equalise size of constituencies

3. Limit JR

4. Get Brexit done

Johnson and Brexit

• Fully left 🇪🇺

EVEL under Johnson

• Formally abolished Great Committee stage

HRA reform under Johnson

• Especially wanted to remove the right a family life for foreign offenders

Elections Act 2022

• Added ID rules

• Changed way elections conducted and regulated in 🇬🇧

Judical Review and Courts Act 2022

• Limited JR powers

2 attempts at Constitutional Reform under Sunak

1. Abandoned Johnson’s plan for British Bill of Rights

2. Disapplied HRA on migration cases as part of Illegal Migration Act 2023 by limiting rights to JR for those seeking asylum

Section 35 of Scotland Act

• Can be used to block a bill from devolved Plmt if believed to have possible negative impact on rest of 🇬🇧

  • Used by Sunak to block Scottish Gender Recognition Bill

Brown Commission 2022

• Commissioned by Starmer after becoming L leader

• Looked into constitutional future of 🇬🇧

7 recommendations from 2022 Brown Commission

1. Embed into law duties of gov’t

2. Further devolution to local communities

3. New institution to represent voice of devolved communities w/in central gov’t

4. Improve 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿/🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿/NI gov’ts

5. Created more opportunities for greater cooperation between devolved gov’ts

6. New procedures to increase MP accountability

7. Replace Lords with smaller democratic 2nd chamber

3 constitutional reforms under Starmer

1. Removal of hereditary peers (but not an introduction of mandatory retirement age)

2. English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill 2025

3. Votes at 16

5 impacts of Brexit on UK constitution

1. Location of sovereignty

2. Return of powers to Britain

3. Growth of statutes — some 🇪🇺 statutes needed to be codified by statute and some not

4. Devolution — 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 wanting to stay but having to leave… independence calls?

5. Northern Ireland!

Henry VIII powers

• Putting through changes by statutory instrument instead of full Plmtary procedures to save time

  • BUT would reduce level of Plmtary scrutiny

Number of regulations and directives when 🇬🇧 was part of 🇪🇺

80,000+

5 🇬🇧 Constitution weaknesses that Brexit has shown up…

1. Reliance on conventions (Article 50 and Royal Prerogative)

2. Represented v direct democracy clash

3. Statutory instrument power after gov’t passed EU laws and directives a bit more quickly

4. Gov’t dominance of Plmtary agenda because Brexit needed cross-party consensus

5. Lack of input from devolved regions

Number of the standing order that allows gov’t to dominate the Plmtary agenda

14

New Magna Carta?

• 2014 UK Plmt’s Political and Constitutional Reform Committee report on the state of the British constitution

Charter 88

• Pressure group that wants to bring about major constitutional change to 🇬🇧

4 aims of Charter 88

1. Clear and codified Bill of Rights

2. Reform Lords so not hereditary

3. Increased devolution

4. Codified constitution to ensure above all okay

Number of people that have signed the Charter since 1977

85,000

Charter 88 today

• Merged with New Politics Network in 2007

  • Formed org ‘Unlock Democracy’

5 possible 🇬🇧 Constitition reforms

1. Commons modernsiation

2. Electoral reform, incl voting age, electoral system and redrawing of electoral districts to try and equalise Plmtary seats

3. Further Lords reform

4. Further devolution to regions of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

5. British Bill of Rights

Lords Reform Act 2014

• Allowed Lords to resign

5 strengths of an English Plmt

1. Solve West Lothian qs

2. English people in favour

3. Could be outside of London and increase connection to representatives

4. Recognise and respect 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ID

5. Federalism would work quite well

2014 — % of people in favour of an 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Plmt

62%

4 weaknesses of English Plmt

1. Federalism would need equalisation of power between regions, which isn’t possible with NI

2. Need an entire new level of gov’t but people don’t trust politicians

3. What would be the differences between Westminster and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Plmt?

4. Just need EVEL, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Plmt is overkill

Civil liberties

• Rights and freedoms for citizens of particular state

• Underpinned by state’s laws, not universal doctrine

• Protect citizens from state

HR

• Rights for all humans — inalienable and universal

6 ways civil liberties and HR are protected in 🇬🇧

1. Common law (judicial precedent)

2. Rule of law primacy

3. Indepednet judiciary

4. Representative democracy to keep gov’t to account

5. Supports negative freedoms

6. Part of international agreements like ECtHR

3 examples of judgements against Britain in ECtHR

1. Dudgeon v 🇬🇧 1981 — NI’s criminalisation of homosexual acts Article 8 violation

2. Hirst v UK 2005

3. A and others v 🇬🇧 2009 — indefinite detention of foreign-national terror suspects violates Article 5

4 strengths of a British Bill of Rights

1. National sovereignty, not ECHR dictating

2. Public confidence

3. Legal clarity for courts and no more ‘foreign’ interpretations of HR coming from ECtHR

4. Updating of protections, like digital rights

5 weaknesses of a British Bill of Rights

1. HR are universal and inalienable… so why do we have just British ones

2. Loss of protections that give citizens a way to challenge gov’t

3. Loss of international reputation, almost hypocritical

4. Impact on vulnerable groups

5. Against public opinion

YouGov 2023 — % of respondents that said 🇬🇧 should stay in ECHR

51%