Reading West MP Martin Salter used a debate in the House of Commons to call on MPs to support reforms to make Parliament more accountable to the public.

The wide-ranging debate was on the report and recommendations of the Reform of the House of Commons, upon which Mr Salter was elected to serve as a Member. Speaking in the Chamber, Mr Salter emphasised the greater need for backbenchers to scrutinise the work of Government, and argued strongly for the election of Select Committee chairs and members rather than by appointment by the whips.

Of the appointment of Select Committee chairs, he said:-

“It is time that we stopped the Executive from handing out Select Committee chairs as booby prizes to sacked Ministers. We had a ridiculous situation - it happened on both sides of the House-in which someone would be removed from Government and, as a consolation prize, given a Select Committee chair and they would then scrutinise the decisions that they had made some months previously. If there is one simple principle to which we should all adhere, it is that we cannot have those who would be scrutinised selecting their own scrutineers, and we certainly cannot have Government Ministers or former Government Ministers scrutinising their own decisions in that way.”

Mr Salter also put forward the view that, in the light of the expenses scandal, it was time that politicians were honest with the public about the effectiveness of some Parliamentary procedures. Speaking of Early Day Motions, which are Parliamentary petitions that MPs can sign up to, Mr Salter said:-

“It is time for us to be honest with the public and to say that early-day motions have become a con trick. They are political graffiti, and we sign too many of them. I am guilty of this; indeed, we all are. I sign too many of them; in many circumstances, I sign them to make people who write to me happy. I should be limited on the number of early-day motions that I may sign - we all should. Frankly, if we were allowed to sign only four or five a month, and if a debate on the Floor of the House were automatically triggered if 50, 60 or 70 per cent. of the House signed up to an early-day motion on a suitable cross-party basis, that would be a way in which the public could meaningfully drive the agenda of this place.”

He added:-

“These reforms should have been introduced 200 years ago - but better late than never. I conclude on a serious point. I am leaving this place in a few weeks’ time, but I want to say that this Parliament, of all Parliaments, has been tainted not by the actions of the majority of Members of Parliament who are, on the whole, diligent, hard-working and tremendously committed to the people who they represent, but has been let down by the actions of a minority. This Parliament of all Parliaments needs to show that it is capable of reform, but reform is not 50 recommendations of the Wright Committee, or resolutions tabled by Robin Cook or by Jopling; it is a continuous process, but it has stalled-and for far too long. We now have an opportunity, despite the procedural wranglings, to get the reform agenda back on track and to reconnect this place with the people who sent us here.”

Speaking after the debate, Martin Salter said:-

“I am pleased that in spite of procedural manoeuvrings by the whips and the reluctance of some in the Government, that we have cleared the first hurdle to making Parliament and politics more democratic and responsive to the public. But while eleven of the Reform Committee proposals were agreed yesterday, the five that were objected to will have to be debated again on 4^th March. These are the more contentious proposals including the election of Select Committee members and chairs, and the power to remove them. It is time that power was handed from the party managers to the backbenchers in order that they might carry out the task of scrutiny that they were elected to do, and I will be working hard over the coming weeks to ensure that backwoodsmen on all sides of the House don’t scupper the most important Parliamentary reforms for one hundred years.”