Afternoon summary
Carla Denyer says 'weird' rule means 'compulsory participation in prayers' for MPs wanting to speak in chamber on busy days
Members of the Youth Parliament were probably spared some of the more arcane rules of Commons procedure. In an interview with Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast, Carla Denyer, the Green party co-leader, complains about it being ‘a club with weird rules”. She is particularly critical of one, which she says amounts to “compulsory participation in prayers in a particular religion [the Church of England]” for MPs who want to take part in debates on busy days.
She explains:
Your listeners will have seen photos and videos of how packed it gets, especially on budget day or prime minister’s questions. There’s only room for about 450 people to sit down in there, even though there are 650 MPs. So on busy days, you see MPs in the aisles and perching on a step and so on.
What I didn’t know until I got elected is that you are not allowed to speak in the chamber unless you’re on one of the main benches. You’re not allowed to take part in the democratic debate.
And the way that you make sure you get one of those seats on the benches is to turn up two, three hours before the debate starts, put a prayer card, a little business card with your name on, on the seat you want to sit on, and then you have to turn up for the beginning of prayers. There are Church of England prayers every morning before the debate starts.
Now, that’s our state religion. If that’s part of the tradition that happens at the beginning of every day, I don’t have a problem with that in and of itself.
But the point is that, if you don’t get there for the beginning of prayers and take part in prayers, then the card gets whipped away and you don’t get to sit down. Therefore you don’t get to take part in the debate …
It’s a club with weird rules with, basically, compulsory participation in prayers in a particular religion, whether that’s your faith or not, in order to take part.
