coalition gov changes to constitution

what did teh lib dems demand as part of the coalition agreement

In May 2010, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to form a coalition government. To prepare for this, they
published a coalition agreement. As part of this agreement, many areas of constitutional reform would be settled. The
Coalition Agreement included:
o A referendum on the use of the Alternative Vote in General Elections
o An Elected House of Lords
o Fixed Term Parliaments
o A reduction in the size of the House of Commons
o Greater Powers for the Scottish and Welsh Assembly
o Registration of Lobby Groups
o The right to recall members of Parliament
o To amend the European Communities Act of 1972 to require a referendum on future transfer of powers
o To reconsider the Human Rights Act

av referendum 2011

As promised, a referendum was held in May 2011 on whether Britain should adopt an ‘Alternative Vote’ system for
Westminster Elections. The Liberal Democrats campaigned for AV and the Conservatives and Labour campaigned to
keep ‘First Past the Post’. This result was a conclusive 67.9% in favour of keeping ‘First Past the Post’

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although its notable that the no campaign, lab and con, spent over 60% more on their campaign than the yes side did

hol into a senate

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what did nick clegg think

The government had planned to pass a bill through Parliament to turn the House of Lords into a Senate, with 450 elected
members having a 15-year term. In July 2012, 91 Conservative Members voted against even debating the issue in
Parliament, and the proposal came to a complete standstill.

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As a result, Nick Clegg also said he would not support
electoral boundary changes, part of the first coalition deal.

fixed term parliaments act 2011 impact, when was it repealed

In 2011 the Fixed Term Parliaments Act was passed. This guaranteed that elections would be held every five years unless: o At least two-thirds of the House of Commons agree a motion for an early General Election.

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o If a motion of no confidence is passed in the government and no alternative government is confirmed within 14 days.


Critics have argued the Liberal Democrats only pushed for this to avoid being kicked out of government as soon as the
Conservative’s popularity increased enough for them to call a new General Election. The FTPA was repealed in April
2022\.

how was the FTPA 2011 ineffectual

On the face of it the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act (2011) appears to be an extremely significant reform. However,
in reality, it is perhaps not that important:


June 2017 – Theresa May wanted to hold an early election. Labour voted for this, because they did not wish to
look weak. In reality, this will already be a consideration for an opposition party. In June 2017 Parliament voted
for an election by 522-13, comfortably above a 2/3s majority.


December 2017 – Boris Johnson tried to persuade Parliament to vote for an early election. Three times he failed
to reach the required 2/3 majority. Therefore, Johnson passed a separate bill called the Early Parliamentary
General Election Act 2019 to ignore the Fixed-Term Parliament Act and hold an early election.

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ineffectiveness culminated in its repeal in 2022

reduction in the hol

Coalition plans aimed to reduce the size of the House of Commons to 600 MPs. The original target of the Liberal
Democrats was 500. The parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Act was passed in February 2011. However, it will
not take effect until the 2024 general election.

wales, more devolution powers

New powers over Energy, Transport, Environment and Elections were promised for Wales in February 2014. In
addition, in February 2015, David Cameron suggested a referendum could be held on whether Wales could set its own
income tax rates.

scotland devo max

New powers were granted to Scotland as part of ‘Devo-Max’. These include the power to deviate from UK Income Tax
levels by 3%. It also added greater powers on all other issues except Defence and Foreign Affairs.


Critics of ‘Devo-Max’ have suggested that the government only granted it after panic during the Scottish Referendum
campaign, suggesting that the ‘Yes’ campaign was heading for victory.

NI, minimal powers

Northern Ireland saw the most minor change under the Coalition. Because of the unique ‘power-sharing’ arrangement
between the nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland, change was more limited as time needed to be given to focus
on the consolidation of the status quo.

recall of mps act 2015

In the Coalition Agreement, it was stated that legislation would be passed that allowed the recall of MPs by their
constituents. Prior to this, there had been no way for an MP to be removed from their position. The bill that was
eventually passed was called the Recall of MPs Act (2015).

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It was a much watered down version of what had initially
been discussed. The circumstances under which an MP could be recalled were limited to those in which the serving MP
had been given a prison sentence or suspended by the House of Commons. A petition signed by 10% of constituents in
these circumstances would initiate a by-election. The process has been used three times:

recall of mps act 2015 examples

Ian Paisley Jr – The DUP MP was suspended from the House of Commons for 30-days for not declaring
money he had received from the Sri Lankan Government. A petition was started but only 9.4% of his
constituents signed the petition

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Christopher Davies – The Conservative MP was convicted for false expense claims. A petition was started
and 18.9% of his constituents signed it. He stood as Conservative candidate in the by-election but lost to the
Liberal Democrat candidate

scot ind 2014, how has momentum grown since for independence

In September 2014, a referendum was held in Scotland on whether or not Scotland should remain part of the United
Kingdom. The result was that 55% of Scots voted to remain in the UK.

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since, theres an evident growing momentum for independence seen in the SNP winning 48/59 of scotlands seats after calling for a 2nd ref on their 2019 manifesto to be held in 2020

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Nicola Sturgeon formally requested the power to hold such a referendum after the victory however BJ called the 1st one a ‘once in a generation opportunity’

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in the 2021 Scottish parliament election campaign. The election delivered a third successive pro-independence majority. The SNP and Scottish Greens, which both campaigned on a manifesto commitment to a second referendum, won a combined 72 out of 129 seats.

registration of lobby groups

In February 2010, David Cameron called lobbying the ‘next great scandal’. The government passed the ‘Lobbying Bill’
in 2014, despite resistance from the House of Lords.

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This created a register for all lobbying groups and limited spending on political campaigns by lobbyists during General Elections.


However, the lobbying issue came back to the fore in February 2015 when two former Foreign Secretaries, Malcolm
Rifkind and Jack Straw, were filmed by undercover reporters agreeing to use their influence to support a fictional Chinese
company in exchange for money.


Embarrassingly for David Cameron, in 2021, he himself was also engulfed in a lobbying scandal surrounding his work
for Greensill Capital.

EU Reform

The coalition agreement agreed to ensure that any future powers transferring to the European Union would be subject
to a referendum. They also agreed to consider a UK Sovereignty Bill, making sure that it is clear that ultimate sovereignty
remains with the UK.

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They were successful with the first point. The European Union Act (2011) required referendums
for new treaties transferring powers from the UK to the EU. In 2013, David Cameron also promised to hold a
referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU

british bill of rights

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The Conservatives have for many years talked about replacing the Human Rights Act with a UK Bill of Rights. The
Liberal Democrats agreed to consider this if a citizen’s convention was set up to consider drawing up a codified
Constitution. A commission on the Bill of Rights showed that a majority of people in the UK favoured a UK Bill of
Rights. However, relatively little progress was made on considering a Codified Constitution.

what happened after cameron resigned in 2016

In June 2017, Theresa May did not win a majority and instead was forced to form a confidence and supply agreement with the DUP. Finally, Boris Johnson replaced Theresa May in July 2019 and won an 80-seat majority in the December 2019 General Election.

evel 2015

By adding the ‘Grand Committee’ stage to the legislative process, David Cameron’s
Government moved somewhat towards allowing English MPs to have a special say on English-Only matters. However,
this is still not satisfactory to many, as Welsh, Scottish and Irish MPs still have a vote on the final bill.

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repealed in 2021

European Union Withdrawal

On the 23rd of June 2016 the promised referendum was held on Britain’s place in the European Union. The British people voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48%

welsh/scot devoltuion powers in terms of acts

– David Cameron oversaw greater devolution to Scotland and Wales. The Scotland Act (2016)
gave greater tax-raising powers to the Scottish Parliament. The Act also stipulated that a Referendum would have to be
held before either the Scottish Parliament or the Scottish Government could be abolished. The Wales Act (2017) gave
tax-raising powers to the Welsh Assembly.

why was there little constitutional reform under may

she was 8 short of the 326 needed for a majority

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10\.1% tory swing to the lib dems

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confidence and supply agreement w DUP

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brexit was the focal point of brit politics, little room for constitutional reform

European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act (2017)

In March 2017, Parliament passed the European Union
Withdrawal Bill (2017) to instigate Article 50, the mechanism by which countries have a two-year window to negotiate
their exit from the European Union.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act (2018)

In July 2017, the Government introduced the bill that would legally see
Britain withdraw from the European Union.

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However, as a result of the impasse over Brexit, Theresa May could not implement any other significant constitutional reforms

BJ’s 2019 constitutional reform promises in the manifesto

To remove the Fixed-Term Parliament Act (2011).

* To equalise the size of electoral constituencies.
* To limit the power of judicial review.
* To ‘get Brexit done’.

2021 hra reform

In December 2021, the Government announced plans to reform the Human Rights Act. Notably, they have said that
the rights of foreign offenders abusing rules to the ‘right to a family life’ need amending.