Wouldn’t it be wonderful if politicians from different parties sang, in harmony, from the same hymn sheet?  That may seem like a Christmas thought but a workday impossibility.

Well, some of the time some of us do.  20 years ago, a Labour peer who knew how many of us were singers but found that the parliamentary timetable prevented us from being in the same church or hall at the same rehearsal time each week suggested that we form a choir within the Parliament estate.  I was sceptical of the idea, but turned up in the crypt chapel just off Westminster Hall for the rehearsal, and have been singing with it ever since.

There are many good voices among the several thousand people working in and around Parliament.  After all, one of the basic skills shared by singers and politicians is the confidence to stand up before an audience and project your voice.  David Lammy, like me, was a boy chorister (he in Peterborough Cathedral, me at Westminster Abbey).  Bernard Jenkin almost became a professional singer; his sister did become a professional, and has been a soloist with Parliament Choir concerts.  Sarah Teather, who sang with the choir when a Liberal Democrat MP, was a wonderful soprano; she also sang solos for us.

Others working in the Palace of Westminster, from clerks and parliamentary staff to librarians to doorkeepers, are invited to join the choir. One of the doorkeepers (an excellent tenor) remarked to me at the reception after an Elgar oratorio concert that the chorus he had sung in longest before coming to Parliament had been in ‘Starlight Express.’  The choir’s early success brought in a number of parliamentarians’ partners and children, and singers from outside bodies that interact with Commons and Lords. I persuaded my daughter to transfer from the Treasury Singers when we were preparing a concert of opera choruses with political messages (there are many of these).  She sings alongside the head of a City Agency whose husband (a fellow bass with me) has now retired as an MP.  During the final rehearsal for our Christmas ‘Messiah’ I discovered that the bass alongside me who was a party staffer when he joined a decade ago is now an MP and a Conservative whip.  He pointed out to me an alto two rows in front of us who is a new Liberal Democrat MP.  A Labour Lords minister was singing to my left.

We tolerate the interference of parliamentary duties.  A security officer will walk up the aisle, in mid-rehearsal, calling ‘Division in the Commons’ or Lords. Many of our 120 members cannot make every rehearsal, or even every concert, when other responsibilities take priority.  We do not require auditions from those who ask to join, though singing lessons are offered.  Turnover among younger parliamentary staff is fairly high.  But with a superb chorus master and conductor, our quality has risen, and invitations to sing outside London and the UK have added an outreach and diplomatic dimension.  We’ve sung in York Minster, St.Alban’s, Southwark and Westminster Cathedrals. We sang Britten’s War Requiem in Coventry Cathedral on the 70^th anniversary of the bombing, with the Deutsche Chor of London and the German Ambassador joining us.  We performed a concert of Coronation music in Westminster Abbey on the 60^th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation, and sang of remembrance in Westminster Hall as part of the commemoration of World War One.

I vividly remember singing in Notre Dame shortly before the disastrous fire, with a visit to the French National Assembly before our final rehearsal.  We’ve performed with the Bundestag Choir in London and Berlin, and sung in the Slovene Parliament.  When the Czech Ambassador invited us to repeat a London performance of the Czech Christmas Mass in Prague I missed the concert, on December 19^th; those who went discovered that St. Vitus Cathedral had no heating, and sang in overcoats.  (Lord) Mike German, our entrepreneurial chairman, is currently negotiating what role we will play in the 80^th anniversary of the end of World War Two, as well as another ambitious overseas visit.

Sadly, I missed singing in the ‘Speakers’ Carols’ in Westminster Hall last week, with a Salvation Army band.  I was caught up in a nine-hour debate in the Lords on the Hereditary Peers (Removal) Bill, which had many discordant notes.  But I will be back with others in the Crypt chapel on January 6^th, to start rehearsing for our next concert.  Singing with others builds a network of friendly relationships, as well as being wonderfully restorative after the hard slog of political negotiation and debate.  There is some harmony in Westminster politics!

* William Wallace is LibDem peer, a former vice-chair of the Federal Policy Committee and convenor of the party's 1997 manifesto team.