This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have accused ministers of seeking to subvert democracy by proposing a rule change that would guarantee the government a majority on crucial committees that scrutinise legislation.

Jeremy Corbyn said the proposal, published on Friday and to be voted on next week, amounted to an “unprecedented power grab” by the government.

The plan, detailed in a motion by Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons, seeks to change the rules on membership of public bill committees, often referred to by their former name, standing committees.

As part of the progress of a bill through the Commons, a committee is set up to scrutinise it in detail. This is often the period when the most amendments are made and potential problems addressed.

The party makeup of such committees is based on the composition of the Commons, meaning that since the election in June, when Theresa May lost her majority, newly formed committees would seek a political balance.



How the Tory election machine fell apart Read more

However, Leadsom’s motion, to be considered on Tuesday, says that while parity should be sought on other types of committee, this would not happen on public bill committees.

The rules should be interpreted, it reads, such that “where a committee has an odd number of members the government shall have a majority, and where a committee has an even number of members the number of government and opposition members shall be equal; but this instruction shall not apply to the nomination of any public bill committee”.

Corbyn tweeted: “An unprecedented attempt to rig parliament and grab power by a Conservative government with no majority and no mandate.”



Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) An unprecedented attempt to rig parliament and grab power by a Conservative government with no majority & no mandate https://t.co/mcqLjHYTzR

The Liberal Democrats said the plan would skewer attempts to change Brexit plans as the government would have a majority on the committee scrutinising the EU withdrawal bill.

The Guardian view on EU withdrawal bill: a cynical power-grab | Editorial Read more

The party’s chief whip, Alistair Carmichael, said it was “an affront to democracy”. He said: “We will fight tooth and nail to ensure parliamentary committees reflect the will of the electorate and do not simply rubber-stamp government decisions.”

The Lib Dems said they would table an amendment to Leadsom’s motion to seek to prevent the change.

However, May’s spokeswoman said the change was vital to avoid long delays to bills through large numbers of amendments being made “by a handful of opposition MPs at committee stage” that would need to be reversed via multiple votes back in the Commons.

“The government has a majority on the floor of the house, therefore it’s perfectly legitimate that it puts to to the house, and thereby MPs, that it should also have a majority in committees,” the spokeswoman said.



“These proposals will make sure that detailed, technical and secondary legislation can be dealt with in committee as usual, rather than everything having to be done on the floor of the house, which would significantly restrict the amount of business parliament could consider at this crucial time.”

The government does not have a majority in the Commons, but is supported through a loose alliance with the Democratic Unionists (DUP). May’s spokeswoman said she did not know whether DUP MPs would be treated as members of the government when it came to filling the committees.



She rejected the charge that it was undemocratic: “These are common sense proposals. We want a system which allows the opposition to conduct effective scrutiny while giving government a realistic prospect of getting its business through the house in a timely fashion.”

The motion was published on the Commons order paper on Friday, but was seen on Thursday by the Huffington Post.



The shadow leader of the Commons, Valerie Vaz, told the website ministers were “rigging the committee system so that they are guaranteed a majority they didn’t secure at the ballot box”.

She said: “The British people will not understand how, having voted to deny the Conservatives a majority, the Tories can alter the rules of parliament to ensure they have one.”