Keir Starmer’s one-line whip wonders

Is Labour on a legislative go-slow? In recent weeks, Mr S has noticed a theme from conversations in the corridors of power. Across the House, MPs are increasingly noticing the number of ‘one-line’ whips they are on in parliament. This refers to diktats issued by the party whips: a one-line whip means that MPs don’t have to turn up to vote if they don’t feel like it, but if they do, they must then vote with the whip. Three-line whips, by contrast, are non-negotiable.

So it says something about the state of the Commons right now that nearly half of the sitting days since the general election have been listed as a ‘one-line whip’. Analysis by Jerome Mayhew shows that between 4 July and 8 February, the House of Commons had 85 sitting days. Of these some 41 were listed as ‘one-line whip days’ – just over 48 per cent of all days that MPs sat in total.