MPs need and deserve a break, no matter what you think about them or Brexit

In any job, utter exhaustion is hardly the best state of mind to make important decisions

(AFP)

“MPs need a break? We want Brexit!” screamed Friday’s headline in the Daily Express. On the face of it, it looks odd and insensitive for the Commons to take an 11-day Easter break amid the Brexit crisis.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, had pleaded with the UK not to waste the six-month delay to Brexit agreed by EU leaders on Wednesday. So why didn’t they just get on with it?

From my ringside seat at Westminster, I don’t usually think that MPs are worthy of our sympathy: if they expect us to feel sorry for them, they are in the wrong job. But on this occasion, I do think they deserve better than the criticism inevitably being hurled their way.

For a start, they would not achieve much by hanging around Westminster next week. The Article 50 extension means there is no urgent need for Commons votes. In an era of supposedly family friendly hours, the house has sat after 10.30pm on 14 occasions since the turn of the year. When the government scrapped the week-long February half-term break, it was purely for presentational purposes, and to avoid bad headlines. There were no votes on Brexit.

On a human level, it’s obvious to me that many MPs are feeling the pressure and are at the end of their tether. Some have genuine fears about the mental health of colleagues. MPs have already lost half of their two-week Easter break. Those with constituencies far away from Westminster can now grab some precious family time, especially those with school-age children.

In any job, utter exhaustion is hardly the best state of mind to make important decisions. Nor would it help politicians achieve the cross-party consensus Theresa May is belatedly trying to forge.

Those talks between the government and opposition will probably continue during the Easter recess (hopefully without May, who surely deserves and needs a break more than anyone). Many ministers will still be at their desks. It is also a tabloid myth that MPs head for the ski slopes or the beaches for weeks on end when the Commons is not sitting.

I am sure that today’s MPs work much harder than those who were there when I moved into the Westminster village in 1982. Most take their constituency responsibilities very seriously, and have become super-councillors instead of part-time MPs with outside jobs.

For once, we should give our MPs a break.

Yours,

Andrew Grice

Political columnist