The turnout for the Report Stage of Harriett Baldwin's Legislation (Territorial Extent) Bill was derisory, just 69 MPs including the Speaker and the Tellers. The MPs that voted No are listed below, an asterix is against the name of any MP who did not vote in any of the previous stages of the bill.
Four Lib Dems turned up for the first time to ensure this was defeated, along with sixteen Conservatives. There were several ministers among their number. Mark Harper, who has ministerial responsibility for Political and Constitutional Reform and who announced details of his West Lothian Commission the day before this vote, voted No when previously he had voted Aye.
NOES
David Anderson (Lab, England) *
Norman Baker (Lib Dem, England) *
Alan Beith (Lib Dem, England)
Richard Benyon (Lib Dem, England) *
Lyn Brown (Lab, England) *
Conor Burns (Con, England) *
Simon Burns (Con, England) *
Rosie Cooper (Lab, Scotland) *
Edward Davey (Lib Dems, England) *
Jonathan Djanogly (Con, England) *
Thomas Docherty (Lab, Scotland) *
Chris Grayling (Con, England) *
Tom Greatrex (Lab, Scotland) *
Philip Hammond (Con, England) *
Mark Harper (Con, England)
David Heath (Lib Dem, England) *
Charles Hendry (Con, England) *
Nick Herbert (Con, England) *
Mark Hoban (Con, England) *
Helen Jones (Lab, England) *
Gerald Kaufman (Lab, England)
Barbara Keeley (Lab, England) *
Mark Lazarowicz (Lab, Scotland) *
Tim Loughton (Con, England) *
Graeme Morrice (Lab, Scotland) *
Meg Munn (Lab, England) *
Stephen O'Brien (Con, England) *
Stephen Pound (Lab, England)
John Randall (Con, England) *
Andrew Robathan (Con, England) *
Hugh Robertson (Con, England) *
Alison Seabeck (Lab, England) *
Richard Shepherd (Con, England) *
Gavin Shuker (Lab, England) *
Hugo Swire (Con, England) *
John Thurso (Lib Dem, Scotland) *
Stephen Timms (Lab, England) *
Chuka Umunna (Lab, England) *
Theresa Villiers (Con, England) *
John Woodcock (Lab, England) *
We can only guess at what political maneuverings go on in the formerly smokey corridors of power, but it looks to me as if the Government might have whipped up a few bodies to ensure that this seemingly innocuous bill bubbled under. The bill did not seek to prevent non-English MPs voting on English-only legislation, it merely sought to clarify the territorial extent of bills (or clauses within bills) and the financial implications of that bill for the individual nations of the UK. It was an attempt at increasing transparency, it is a change that is necessary before any system of English Votes on English Laws could be introduced, as Harriett Baldwin mentioned during the debate:
In 2009, the Justice Committee prepared a report called, “Devolution: A Decade On.” In its conclusions and recommendations, it said:
“The question of whether England-only legislation can be more clearly demarcated from other legislation has to be resolved if any scheme of English votes for English laws is to work.”
Reading through the Hansard transcript of the debate just serves to highlight the fact that the West Lothian Question cannot be resolved for so long as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are funded via the Barnett Formula. And given that the Commission into the West Lothian Question will not address the Barnett Formula, and given the Government has said that it will not address the Barnett Formula until "stabilisation of the public finances has been achieved", I have to conclude that the West Lothian Commission is a waste of time, little more than a charade. Given its limited scope the best that it could recommend is Malcolm Rifkind's double majority proposal, which is precisely what I predict it will do.
As was suggested in the Scotsman, it's probably best for politicians to stop asking the question.
There is an answer to the WLQ, two in fact: Scottish independence, backed by the SNP, or a federal UK, supported by the Lib Dems. As neither option is favoured by a majority of MPs, maybe they need to stop asking the question until they can accept the answer.
Unfortunately though they cannot because even Guardian readers now support the political exiling of Scottish, Welsh and Northen Irish MPs.