Rejected petition: Make it illegal for parties to punish MPs who vote with their constituents
Rejected on
We believe the whipping system is undemocratic.
MPs are elected by their constituents, not by political parties. However, the current system allows parties to threaten, bully, and punish MPs who vote according to the wishes of the people who elected them.
We therefore ask the Government to introduce legislation that will:
- Make it illegal for any political party to remove the whip, deselect, or otherwise punish an MP for voting in line with the clearly expressed views of their constituents.
- Require every MP to publicly record how their vote relates to the interests of the people they were elected to represent.
The current system gives far too much power to party bosses and not enough to the voters. It is time to put constituents first.
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
We're not exactly sure what you mean by "the clearly expressed views of their constituents" and how that would be measured.
In any case, the UK Government and Parliament as a whole are not responsible for how political parties work in respect of parliamentary proceedings, including how they might try to influence how MPs in their party vote in the House of Commons. Decisions about whether to be a member of a particular political party, or none at all, are for individual MPs.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.