Good morning,

Labour party members have been able to vote digitally for their new leader, will MPs soon be able to vote digitally on legislation? Is there an app for that? Parliament is looking at new options of digital working as Coronavirus continues. Meanwhile, the European People’s Party in the EU has called on the UK to request a transition while Number 10 is still being reluctant. As usual, we have a collection of recommended reading for you too.

Enjoy,
Jacob

In Politics

Transition Extension?

EPP, the biggest party in the European Parliament, call on the UK to request transition extension
Some UK ministers think this is inevitable
Number 10 and many Conservative MPs continue to be against extension

It is now 12 weeks until the deadline for a request for the transition period to be extended. This week the EPP (European People’s Party) in the European Parliament called on the UK Government to request an extension to the transition period as ‘the only responsible thing to do’. If the UK wishes to do so it must be by the 1st July.

The EPP is the centre-right/liberal-conservative grouping of European political parties in the European Parliament. It is the largest party in the European Parliament and, for those with longer memories pre-Brexit, is the grouping in the European Parliament that David Cameron pulled the Conservative party out of in an effort to appease Conservative Eurosceptics.

The EPP has joined a growing chorus on both sides of the channel for the transition period to be extended. They think it should be extended because government capacity (on both sides) is being taken up by coronavirus, which means negotiating is incredibly difficult. Furthermore managing a potential economic shock of no-deal at the end of 2020 (in the middle of a pandemic) could be challenging to say the least.

This thinking is held by some ministers in the UK, as reported by the New Statesman’s Patrick Maguire, and they think that an extension will be inevitable. But. Maguire also explains that there are significant roadblocks to this happening within the Conservative Party. First Downing Street doesn’t want to extend. Secondly, the current deadline of the transition is in law and this would need to be legislated for.

When Johnson passed his Withdrawal Agreement Bill in 2020 he included a change to the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 which explicitly prevents a minister agreeing to extend the transition period: “Minister of the Crown may not agree in the Joint Committee to an extension of the implementation period”. As the Institute for Government outline in their explainer, to change this it would require primary legislation to pass in Parliament for the Prime Minister to extend the transition period.

There is no guarantee that Conservative MPs would back such legislation. There is a belief among Conservative MPs that the turmoil of a no-deal would only marginally add to the turmoil of Coronavirus, and furthermore the EU27 would be unable to negotiate effectively together as one bloc therefore given an advantage to the UK. Considering Johnson’s majority is built on electing MPs who strongly agree with his stance of leaving the EU, no ifs, no buts by December 2020, it could be that his MPs would rebel if he was to change his position.

Downing Street shows no sign of changing position at the moment but this could all change as we get closer to the end of June and the Coronavirus continues.

In Policy

Digital Parliament

Speaker of the House of Commons requests the Government look into options for digital working in the Commons
Chi Onwurah MP leads 140 MPs calling for virtual parliament
Needed digital reforms potentially coming due to Coronavirus impact on Parliamentary work

Last week in the bulletin I wrote about the lack of adequate digital provisions in Parliament for voting and debating for MPs (among many other functions that could be better supported digitally). It appears that the Speaker reads this bulletin as this week he published a letter, to Jacob Rees-Mogg as the Leader of the House of Commons, insisting on a virtual Parliament!

Sadly it is more likely that he has listened to the growing calls for a virtual parliament from MPs than this bulletin. Chi Onwurah MP has led the calls writing to the Clerk of the House of Commons, joined by over 140 MPs, urging the Commons authorities to work with Parliamentary Digital Services and the wider tech sector to create a digital Parliament. She emphasises the need for secure video conferencing, something Zoom and the Prime Minister have been criticised for recently, which highlights one of the difficulties in a digital Parliament, handling highly sensitive data on a regular basis. MPs have a bad reputation with digital security with sharing passwords being rife.

In the Speaker’s letter, available here, he outlines that once the Commons returns from recess on the 21st April, if MPs are still unable to physically attend Parliament due to the Coronavirus then they should be able to participate virtually. Specifically, he outlines ‘they should be able to participate in key parliamentary proceedings virtually, for example, oral questions, urgent questions, statements and PMQs.’. The power to create provisions lies with the Government and the approval of the House of Commons. We wait to see what the Government will do, but since Johnson is so keen on a virtual Cabinet meeting and his PMQs on Facebook we might see the much needed digital reform come to fruition yet.

Recommended Reading

Raphael Hogarth, of the Institute for Government, has a useful thread on Coronavirus lockdown statutory instruments here
Equally Ours have a resources hub for the impacts of COVID-19 on equality and human rights. Access it here
Perdita Fraser writes for the FT on the need of a lifeline for the charity sector so it can respond to the COVID-19 crisis, available here
Watch Karl Wilding in front of the Digital, Media, Culture and Sport Committee giving evidence about the impact of COVID-19 on charity sector here
House of Commons Library confirms that Coronavirus has put the UK into recession here
The UK Government is in a row with the EU over the EU maintaining an office in Northern Ireland. The Guardian reports here