On Monday 10th November a Liberal Democrat Opposition Day debate was held in the Commons on a motion on the Post Office Card Account.
The wording of the motion was the same as that used in Early Day Motion (EDM) 2008 from this session. The EDM was signed by 47 Labour MPs. In the vote on the motion, however, most of them voted against. Here are their names:
David Anderson
Janet Anderson
John Battle
Martin Caton
David Chaytor
David Clelland
David Crausby
John Cummings
Janet Dean
Andrew Dismore
Jim Dobbin
David Drew
Neil Gerrard
Roger Godsiff
David Hamilton
David Heyes
Lindsay Hoyle
Eric Illsey
Brian Jenkins
Peter Kilfoyle
Bob Laxton
David Lepper
Alan Meale
Doug Naysmith
Greg Pope
Dennis Skinner
Joan Walley
Lindsay Hoyle was the MP who sponsored the original Early Day Motion; however on Monday night, this was the absurd logic he gave for voting against the motion (From Hansard):
Will I be supporting the Liberal Democrats tonight? Will I heck as like! This is the cheek with which they operate. They really have not given us an alternative, and they will never do so, because they are not going to be in government. What they have not told us tonight is that their motion is a copy of my early-day motion, which aimed to ensure that the Government were getting the message. That message was: rethink, look again and deliver. Supporting the Liberal Democrats tonight will not save anything; far from it. I have achieved more by saying this tonight from these Benches than they have done. We have already reached agreement on a taskforce and on the advertisement of POCA. We have made great strides tonight, and that is because we are willing to fight for the future of the Post Office. If people are serious about voting to save the Post Office, they should not follow the Liberals into the Lobby tonight. If they are serious, they should back the Government, who are willing to listen.
Were those Labour MPs “serious about voting to save the Post Office”? Or were they voting to protect the Government?
Just three days later, the Government performed this U-turn, announcing that the Post Office would continue to run the Post Office Card Account.
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4 Comments
Greg Pope and Janet Anderson both voted against, and are two of my local MPs. More ammunition for my local party, cheers to you all!
His arguments were so petty I had to check the Hansard link to check if he ellaborated the point he made. In fact he didn’t, he voted against for purely party political reasons.
John Leech MP missed both the relevant debates as Gerald Kaufman pointed out. Why do you people expect anyone on the government benches to back opposition stuff?
Can anyone provide examples from authorities run by Lib Dems where opposition business is not mostly amended out of sight or voted down? That seems to be what happens most everywhere most of the time.
As Geoffrey Payne says: For purely party political reasons.
Feigning outrage at normal custom and practice seems a bit rich in the circumstances.
I think the outrage should be at the fact that it is normal custom and practice for many Labour politicians.