 | 'Under the Recess Elections Act, the Speaker has the power to declare the vacancy while Parliament is not sitting and if Labour believes it will lose the seat and refuses an early poll, then another party - in this case almost certainly the Scottish Nationalist - may force the Speaker's hand.' Graham Dines in EADT24 - Suffolk & Essex Online, 26 th August 2008. |  |
THE Recess Elections Act of 1975 may not have crossed your radar, but it has the potential to give the Labour Party in general, and Gordon Brown in particular, a massive headache.
The convention at Westminster is that when an MP dies or retires, the party to which he belonged has the responsibility to call the by-election. It's not the done thing for others to set the election timetable in motion.
Glenrothes' Labour MP John MacDougall died two weeks ago and in the normal scheme of things, the by-election would be called when the vacancy is declared following MPs' return from their long vacation, giving a polling day of the end of October or beginning of November.
However, under the Recess Elections Act, the Speaker has the power to declare the vacancy while Parliament is not sitting and if Labour believes it will lose the seat and refuses an early poll, then another party - in this case almost certainly the Scottish Nationalist - may force the Speaker's hand.
It will be a crude political tactic if the SNP does act. The sole reason will be to embarrass the Prime Minister, because if Labour loses Glenrothes - the seat adjoining Brown's Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency - then the perceived wisdom is that he will be doomed and Scotland will be the SNP's for the taking.
Return to home page