Filibusters: MPs push for end to 'cruel' blocking of Private Members' Bills

After first aid training and free parking for carers bite the dust, MPs talk up a change

Conservative MP Philip Davies deploys filibustering tactic to block a proposed law to introduce free hospital parking for carers

A senior committee of MPs is to press for the end of the “cruel” filibustering of Private Members’ Bills, which Conservatives used this month to block a vote on giving children compulsory first aid training. Charles Walker, the chairman of the powerful Procedure Committee, has been increasingly irritated by the habit of MPs talking endlessly and leaving no time for a vote.

Proposals for free hospital parking for carers, and the Off-Patent Drugs Bill were similarly filibustered recently. Had a vote been won, these bills would have received a second reading and proceeded through Parliament.

Making marathon speeches and refusing to give way to other MPs is a common tactic on PMBs, which reach the floor of the House of Commons for a restricted period of time on a Friday. Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, in West Yorkshire, is notorious for filibustering, and spoke for about 50 minutes to make sure the First Aid Bill ran out of time for a vote.

Many MPs are furious that the Government appears to praise these bills, but does not rein in an awkward squad of filibustering enthusiasts led by Mr Davies from talking them to death. They think the Government succeeds in appearing not to be blocking well-meaning bills that have cross-party support, even though it has done nothing to help them through Parliament.

Mr Walker told The Independent on Sunday: “In their current form private members’ bills are a cruel deception that we play on our electorate.”

It is understood that Mr Walker will ask his committee to look into the issue, with one option being to move Private Members’ Bills debates to Tuesday evenings. Many ministers and backbench MPs are back in their constituencies on Fridays, leaving those who like filibustering to their own devices.

One supporter of Mr Walker’s reforms said that such a move to Tuesday would “force the Government to dip its hands in blood” if it wanted to kill a proposal. The committee could also recommend compulsory voting, though this might require the number of PMBs to be reduced, so that they do not take up so much parliamentary time.

Charles Walker MP

Charities that campaigned on these recent bills were furious about how they had been scuppered.

Jonathan Ellis, of the British Red Cross, said: “It is very frustrating that the emergency first aid Bill was ‘talked out’ as we had cross-party support from MPs, over 14,000 members of the public and a number of other organisations. Filibustering denied the opportunity for a democratic vote on this uncontroversial issue and ultimately denied school children the opportunity to learn first aid.”

Ellie Rose, of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “It’s not fair that many cancer patients and their carers pay extortionate hospital car parking charges in order to access life-saving treatment. An important opportunity was lost to vote on an issue that could have made a significant difference to hundreds of thousands of people’s lives. ”

Roger Gale, a fellow Conservative, criticised Mr Davies’s tactics and urged him not to block the first aid Bill given it was “a matter of life and death”.

Mr Davies responded that this argument was “ludicrous” and added: “Why on earth would I allow a bill the principle of which I don’t like a second reading?”