So they are increasingly influenced by constituents and local party members.Īs loyalty to leaders becomes more fragile, MPs find their leaders disappointing with ever greater speed. Meanwhile, MPs spend far more time in their constituencies as seats are perceived to be less safe at elections, and to respond to demands for help from their constituents. Relying on a terrific performance when speaking to the whole party in order to drum up support –- at the Tory 1922 Committee meetings for example –- has become riskier without that everyday relationship building. Leaders are more distant from their backbenchers because they no longer network and gossip with them in the tea rooms, bars and corridors. Parliament has absorbed a general cultural decline in deference, diminishing the automatic respect for party leaders.

Persistent offenders might by threatened with the withdrawal of the party whip (indicating their party membership), support at the next election or the release of damaging information about them to the media.Ĭonservatives in crisis: where whipping stops and blackmail beginsīut the power of political parties, and both whips and leaders within them, has been weakened in recent years, making backbench support far less reliable. Whips used to intimidate new backbenchers with threats and occasionally violence – vote as you are told or you won’t be promoted to minister, get a place on a select committee or be allowed a “slip” (absence from a vote). Whipping has changed dramatically, as I explain in my anthropology of MPs at work. On the other hand, MPs have become more rebellious each parliamentary session since the 1950s. On the one hand, the government has around 160 to 170 MPs on the payroll (as ministers, whips, parliamentary private secretaries, party vice-chairs and trade envoys) who have to vote with the whip to keep their jobs. Over the past 50 years, government whips have increasingly struggled to keep their members on side, as political scientist Phil Cowley has found. But in parliament, the heat is turned up by exposure to the media and public. It is not so different from the communications team in any organisation. In the past, they communicated by sending instructions on paper, then by pager, and now messages are sent by email or on WhatsApp. Led by the chief whip, the whips act to create solidarity and obedience among the larger team of the political party. The opposition whips engage in similar strategies, but to scrutinise and undermine the government and its goals. If that fails, they try to persuade them not to vote against the prime minister. In the case of a confidence vote in the leader (a Tory tradition), the whips use a mix of incentives (such as promotion) and threats to dissuade MPs from submitting letters to the backbench chair calling for a vote. Government whips try to make sure that the government passes its business -– mostly laws -– and that the prime minister gets loyalty. Parliamentary whips are MPs appointed by each party leader to encourage loyalty to their common cause. MPs have to pay attention to what they are told by constituents, local parties, advisers and public polls – but most of all, the whips. For those of us who research parliament, situations like this one are an interesting peek at what goes on behind the scenes in party politics. The recent confidence vote against Boris Johnson dealt a blow to the prime minister’s leadership, revealing the level of opposition he faces within his own party.

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