Douglas Carswell's Blog

Recall and Primaries: a Bill to make the Commons properly accountable

Tomorrow I’m introducing a Bill to allow local voters to sack wayward MPs – and have a direct say over who gets to be their MP in the first place.

One of the reasons why Westminster doesn’t work – and why folk have become quite so anti politics and anti politician – is the perception we're governed by a remote and unaccountable political class. Too many MPs seem insulated from meaningful public accountability . 

In fact, with 7 out of 10 Parliamentary seats unlikely to change hands during a General Election, many MPs are more vulnerable to pressures inside SW1 than those outside. 

Only real accountability will revive our political system. What can we do to make sure that every MP in every constituency faces a real democratic contest in order to be in the House of Commons at all? 

If we had a right of recall to sack serious wrong-doers, MPs would be held properly accountable for how effectively they did their job. If we had Open Primaries, there would be a real choice to deicide who should be the next MP – not just choice in marginal seats.

After the success of the Totnes Open Primary this summer, the advantages of open source politics are obvious. Not least, it’ll create more independent-minded citizen lawmakers, and mean fewer professional politicians.

However, the big problem is the cost. My Bill overcomes this problem by allowing the local returning officer to “piggy back” a primary ballot, on behalf of a local party, on to a pre-existing election. The marginal cost increase of the additional ballot paper would be a few £hundred, rather £thousands.

Even Gordon Brown in Brighton talked about recall. Will he now back the Bill? 

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