Dressing down for rebel MP who dared to dress down

Merchant bankers on their own do it. Trendy ad executives with their clients do it. Even computer bosses in front of their screens do it.

Unfortunately for Kevin Brennan, MP for Cardiff West, wearing casual dress to work for just one day a week landed him in a spot of bother with the Speaker last night. "Dress down Thursday" became dressing-down Thursday for the Labour backbencher after he defied both Tory MPs and convention by not wearing a tie in the chamber.

Mr Brennan joined a long line of Parliamentary rebels when he carried out a threat to turn up to work sans tie to test exactly how modern the modernised, 21st-century Commons really was.

The affair began a week ago when the MP pointed out that Billy Bragg, the pop star turned constitutional expert, had complained that Parliamentarians gave a "besuited image that's male, pale and stale".

In a brave effort to reach out to the youth of the nation, Mr Brennan asked Robin Cook, the Leader of the House, if he could institute a dress-down day for all MPs.

Following Mr Cook's reply that it was "open to Members to come to the chamber in whatever attire they choose, provided it is seemly and decent and consistent with the chamber", the MP went into sartorial battle yesterday.

Unfortunately, he was spotted by Tory MPs, most of whom conjured up enough outrage to alert the Speaker, Michael Martin, himself dressed in the smart black garb of his office. "Where's his tie?!!" the Opposition yelled.

So incensed was Michael Fabricant, MP for Lichfield, that he made it a point of order. "I notice... for the first time in my experience, an MP spoke in the chamber without a tie. Now that may or may not be the new standard... but I thought we always used to have to wear a jacket and tie at least," he said. Mr Fabricant was himself wearing a rather fetching stars and stripes tie to mark American Independence Day, as was Eric Forth, the extravagantly attired Shadow Leader of the House.

Sadly for the mini-rebellion, the Speaker agreed with Mr Fabricant: "What my feeling would be is – jackets and tie for honourable gentlemen."

A chastened Mr Brennan reappeared some hours later sporting a tie. "I had a spare one back in my office. After Mr Speaker's ruling, I thought it would be sensible to get it around my neck as soon as possible," he told The Independent last night.

"Our committee has just visited the Dutch Parliament and we were very impressed with just how relaxed and informal the atmosphere was, and their MPs had no strict dress code."

So, Tony Blair may have been tieless in Gaza, the Speaker himself may be allowed to follow Betty Boothroyd in not wearing a huge wig, but Mr Brennan was banned from making his own small blow for the avant garde.

Alternative dress codes have popped up from time to time in the Commons. On Bernie Grant's first day in 1987 he wore traditional African dress, a white dashiki. Perhaps more outlandishly, Nicholas Fairbairn, MP for Perth and Kinross and all-round eccentric, liked to wear frock-coats and bobble-hat berets.

Defying the Speaker is itself a noble Parliamentary tradition, with 28 MPs being suspended from the House since 1949 for failing to obey orders.

Bessie Braddock, a Liverpool MP, was the first woman to be thrown out for using bad language. She famously accused Winston Churchill of being drunk in the chamber, to which he retorted: "and you madam, are ugly, but I shall be sober in the morning".

But perhaps the most unjust expulsion was that of Dale Campbell-Savours, who branded Jeffrey Archer "a criminal" in 1995 for his role in the Anglia TV shares affair. Refusing to retract, the Labour MP said "I believe it is criminal activity and I will leave."

The dress code

Erskine May, the parliamentary bible, has only one tiny paragraph on a dress code. It states: "The Speaker has stated that it is the custom for Members to wear jackets and ties." As if to underline its Victorian origins, it adds that the wearing of military medals, insignia and uniforms "is not in accordance with the long-established custom of the House". In 1982 the Speaker, George Thomas, reiterated the jacket and tie rule. However last week Robin Cook, Leader of the Commons, said that not all MPs follow Erskine May and that there were no "obligatory dress standards on Members".