Lawmakers have backed a proposal to bar MPs from attending Parliament if they are arrested for serious sexual and violent offences.
A House of Commons vote on Monday reversed moves to water down the measures set by its risk-based exclusion policy, which previously sought to ban MPs at the point of charge, rather than arrest.
Last year, the House of Commons Commission set up a framework to deal with serious allegations relating to a violent or sexual offences involving senior officials. Later the government set out a revised plan, setting the threshold at the point of charge.
However, MPs backed 170 to 169 the proposal by Liberal Democrat Wendy Chamberlain to revert to the threshold being an arrest.
Ms. Chamberlain told the House that she would like to see its practice align with those in other workplaces. While the House doesn’t employ the MPs, it’s an employer of staff members, who should be legally protected from harassment, she added.
Commenting on the vote, former police officer Ms. Chamberlain said it was about “safeguarding, not the guilt or innocence of those accused.”
Mike Clancy, general secretary of trade union Prospect, welcomed the decision and described it as an “important and overdue victory for common sense.”
Inadequate Safeguarding
Campaigners and politicians have long been pushing to ban MPs arrested for sexual or violent offences from the parliamentary estate. During the debate on Wednesday, Ms. Chamberlain and Labour MP Stella Creasy brought up the case of Wayne Couzens, an off-duty police officer who abducted, raped, and murdered Sarah Everard in 2021.“Following the case of Wayne Couzens, we agreed that anybody from the police accused of serious misconduct should be removed from the parliamentary estate—that is accused, not even arrested. How do we square the circle that what we think is appropriate for the police is not appropriate for ourselves?” said Ms. Creasy.
The Angiolini Inquiry into the Couzens case found that chances to stop him were repeatedly ignored and missed.
Labour MP Jess Phillips told the House that inadequate safeguarding leads to young women and men being put off from ever working in politics again.
“There is this idea that we are superior beings who should not have to be concerned about safeguarding laws that are totally standard practice across the whole of the country,” she said.
Conservative MPs Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sir Michael Ellis have warned about constitutional and legal implications to excluding MPs on arrest.
Lawmakers should find time or legislation to set the policy “properly,” said Sir Jacob.
“There is a key principle here, there’s a golden thread that runs through our system that a person must not suffer imposition before guilt has been proven. And it is offensive against the laws of natural justice, and in fact contrary to human rights to do so,” Sir Michael told MPs.
Under current rules, MPs cannot be excluded from the parliamentary estate by officials. Any agreements for MPs to stay away are voluntary. Cases of MPs who have been asked to stay away from Parliament as a result of rape allegations have emerged in the last two years.
In October 2023, Crispin Blunt had the Conservative Party whip removed, after his arrest in connection with an allegation of rape. He was asked to keep away from Westminster and currently sits as an independent MP.
In 2022, another unnamed MP had also been asked to stay away from Parliament over rape allegations.
