Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:34 am on 15 March 2012.
On Monday, 186 Members voted against all-House elections to the Backbench Business Committee. Of those, 119 were payroll Members. Without those Front-Bench votes, Back Benchers would have secured all-House elections by 38 votes. We all saw the pain on the face of the Leader of the House on Monday night. Can he explain the tortuous logic by which he squares the coalition’s promise to give more powers to Back Benchers with Monday’s Front-Bench intervention?