Douglas Carswell's Blog

I'm no rebel

Conservative Home has a fascinating article about the 143 Conservative MPs who have, at one time or another, defied their party whip, and voted against the government.

As Tim Montgomerie eloquently puts it “the genie of backbench power is out of the bottle it won't easily be put back .... Rebelliousness is now in the Tory bloodstream”.

I agree with all of that, and welcome it. 

Now that this not-always-voting-the-way-the-whips-tell-us thing is an established feature of political life, please can we stop referring to the MPs who do it as “rebels”?   

A rebel is someone who seeks to overturn legitimate, established authority. MPs who vote against their government are not usurping established authority. We are helping to re-assert the sovereignty of the legislature – shorthand for sovereignty of the people - which has been usurped in recent decades by a tiny oligarchy.

If ministers worry that some of their Bills and budgets will not get through the Commons, perhaps it says more about the laws they are trying to make and the taxes they wish to levy, than it does about the stubbornness of MPs?   

A Member of Parliament is first and foremost precisely that – a member of Parliament, not the government. Until the First World War, when a backbencher was asked to join the government, they had to resign their seat and win a by-election because they were deemed to be changing sides.

I am not suggesting that we go back to that, but we ought at least recognise that those of us elected to the Commons as backbenchers have a duty and responsibility to hold ministers to account. 

Doing that is not being rebellious. It does not make me any less of a Conservative.  It does not mean I do not wish the government well.  It is called doing my job.

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