UK Parliament / Open data

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

I understand the argument that my noble and learned friend is developing. One of his objections to my noble friend’s amendment was that it seeks to encapsulate what is the current position, where the Prime Minister can say, ““Well, if we lose on this Second Reading of a major government Bill, we cannot continue; we make it a question of confidence””, and uses that to mobilise government supporters. My noble and learned friend is objecting to maintaining the current provision, whereby the Prime Minister can simply say: ““If we lose, we go””. I touch on the point that it is still open to the Government to resign. If the Prime Minister says, ““This is crucial to our programme; if we lose, we resign””, and therefore goes to the Palace in the wake of that to tender the Government's resignation, under the Bill, what happens?
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
726 c1216 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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