Good riddance to the Fixed Term Parliaments Act

Yahoo

22-04-2025

One of the measures the government will pursue in the new session of parliament is the repeal of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Constitutional geeks will wail and gnash their teeth, weep hot, bitter tears of political propriety. Some observers (myself included), more comfortable with realpolitik, will heave a sigh of relief. Most, of course, will neither notice nor care.
The FTPA was introduced early in the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government. For some it was a tidying-up exercise, removing from the royal prerogative (and therefore controlled by the prime minister) the ability to dissolve parliament and call an election at any convenient point. This power was deemed A Bad Thing. Instead it regulated the length of a parliament at five years, with elections to be held on statutory dates. For others, it was a concession to the junior coalition partners, an assurance that the deal negotiated between David Cameron and Nick Clegg would endure for a full five years: both sides were locked in.
A permanent measure to address a temporary necessity: it was a recipe for unhappiness. Even from the beginning, doubt was evident. Section 7 of the Act provided for a review of its operation to take place in 2020; some MPs felt it was an inadequate challenge to the ancient prerogative powers; while some political scientists, fulfilling, it must be said, their gruesome trade, warned both that nothing would change and that the Act would have unintended consequences.
What was the harm? Surely, bright-eyed constitutional enthusiasts asked, it must be a good thing to take away from the prime minister the ability to call a general election at a time convenient to the government? Do not many other countries have fixed terms of legislature or executive, and should we not seek to be more like them? Would it not be more modern to have the power written into law rather than at the decision of an hereditary monarch, advised by her chief minister?
British political history is littered with the wreckage of idealism meeting reality with a heavy impact. The 2010 Parliament did indeed last a full five years, though, with a healthy and stable coalition majority, there was little suggestion that stumps would ever be drawn early. And we all remember the five-year 2015 Parliament, and the subsequent general election last May, right?
It's hard to remember now, but in the spring of 2017, Theresa May was riding high in the polls. Ridiculously high: some numbers suggested that the Labour Party, with Jeremy Corbyn at the helm, was destined for near-destruction. Mrs May was seized with uncharacteristic boldness and wanted to go to the country. But alas! The wretched Fixed-term Parliaments Act.
The deed was easily done. The FTPA contained provisions for its five-year term to be overridden by a vote of two-thirds of the House of Commons. The Conservatives rowed in behind the prime minister, ready to fight: the Opposition could hardly be seen to duck an election, especially with a radical new leader, and so a motion was passed (by 522 to 13) to dissolve parliament early.
The same thing (more or less) happened again in 2019. Boris Johnson, freshly installed as prime minister, sought his own mandate. Twice the Opposition blocked an early dissolution until Brexit legislation was passed, but in the end, the FTPA was circumvented entirely by the passage of the Early Parliamentary General Election Act in October 2019, leading to a poll in December, with results which are still fresh in the memory.
The FTPA was a complex and cumbersome piece of legislation designed by one party for immediate parliamentary management and welcomed by another as abstract constitutional propriety. Within nine years it was overridden twice, by various means, demonstrating what a dead letter it was when the chips were down. Let us be generous and say it was worth a try; but let us not have any sorrow when the legislation to repeal it eventually passes. Good-bye to all that.
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