UK Parliament home

This petition was submitted during the 2017 to 2019 Parliament

View other petitions from this Parliament

Closed Proroguing Parliament should require a vote by MPs

Closed on

Dissolving Parliament early to call an election now requires a vote by MPs, but a Prime Minister only needs to speak to the monarch to end a Parliamentary session whenever they want and set when the next one will begin. This should also require a vote by MPs.

The current rules on the timing of Parliamentary sessions are antiquated and open to abuse. In the last decade, sessions of Parliament have been extended twice by cancelling a Queen's Speech (in 2011 and 2018), and now in 2019 Parliament is being closed for an extended period, preventing Parliamentary scrutiny of a minority government and a PM who has not been elected by the whole country. This must not be allowed to happen again. Any change to the annual state opening of Parliament should require a vote by MPs to approve it.

308 signatures

Show on a map

10,000

Petition progress

View all updates for this petition, with the most recent first.

  • Petition closed

  • Petition published

    This petition can now be signed.

    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 6 November 2019.