Downing Street Says » Eric Illsley

» Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Eric Illsley

Asked what the Prime Minister thought would happen to the reputation of the Commons if an MP was sentenced to a term of less than twelve months but remained an MP, the PMS said that the Prime Minister’s personal view was that it would be a very difficult situation. The PMS said that if someone had defrauded the people they were there to represent, that would be an untenable position.

Asked if No10 was aware of any parliamentary procedures that could be used to remove such an MP, the PMS replied that it was his understanding that there was the Representation of the People Act 1981, which said that a person sentenced for a term of more than one year would be disqualified from membership of the House.

The PMS said that before that Act was passed, the House could expel members who were sent to jail on an ad-hoc basis, so there could be a resolution and a vote to expel a member from the House. The PMS said that it was his understanding that the relevant party would ask the Government to table such a resolution.

Asked if that had happened yet, the PMS said he did not think so.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.