Representation

Themes

Representation

Parliaments are representative institutions, and parliamentarians are representatives. But who are they, through what institutions and mechanisms do they enter Parliament, how do they behave, and how do they see their own role? And how does Parliament’s status and performance as a representative institution affect its operation and public standing?

Latest

Blog / MPs and the parliamentary oath of allegiance: A shibboleth under scrutiny?

Before taking their seats, Members of Parliament must legally swear an oath or make an affirmation of allegiance to the Crown. For some MPs this can be uncomfortable, creating a conflict between personal beliefs and legal obligations. Some MPs find themselves compelled to express sentiments they do not genuinely hold, or risk their constituents being deprived of representation. Unlike oaths taken by other office holders, the parliamentary oath does not address public expectations of MPs, nor does it guide MPs in understanding their duties. It has become a symbolic formality, a shibboleth, that could be usefully reformed.

Blog / The 1922 Committee: What are its origins?

The 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers is 100 years old on 18 April 2023 – but the MPs who attended its founding meeting would have been astonished it still exists a century later, and even more by its prominence and political importance. Why and how was the Committee created? And what accounted for its survival, when many apparently similar groups fell by the wayside?

Blog / Rebels with a cause: Backbench groups in the parliamentary Conservative Party

We’ve got used to the Conservative Party at Westminster being routinely described as somehow ‘ungovernable’, with Tory Prime Ministers seemingly prey to the whims of this or that group of determined, disruptive backbenchers. Just who are those groups? How influential are they? And do they really reflect a profound underlying fissure in the party or are they more evanescent than sometimes imagined?

Reports / A new structure for interparliamentary relations

The emerging quasi-federal organisation of the UK is under new strain yet there are currently no formal mechanisms for the two Houses at Westminster and the devolved legislatures to engage with each other on devolution-related issues of mutual concern. This report, published jointly with the Study of Parliament Group, sets out a proposal to develop and improve interparliamentary relations.

Blog / Is chairing Select Committees in the House of Commons really an 'alternative career'?

If you’ve been thinking that a more-than-usual number of MPs have recently moved straight from being Select Committee Chairs to (shadow) Ministers, then you’d be right. Yet data on Select Committee Chairs since 2005 seems to undermine the idea of Select Committee work as a career goal, with chairships instead increasingly acting as launchpads for, or interludes between, (shadow) ministerial posts.