With Theresa May all set to do a deal with the DUP, this writer is calling for all Tory MP's with a conscience to Cross the Floor on the 19th of June. I will also be encouraging others to Lobby their MP's to do the same.
Following the General Election which resulted in a Hung Parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May has decided to bolster up her party by reaching an agreement, or as some are calling it, forming a coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party - DUP.
Arlene Foster, 46, is the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. She was the First Minister of Northern Ireland up until the dissolution of the Stormont devolved assembly in January this year amid a renewable energy fiasco and claims of fraud. The DUP has been open in its support for Northern Ireland’s abortion ban, which sees women imprisoned for having one and denied access to safe and legal terminations. The DUP opposes same-sex marriage. Although the DUP doesn't mention same-sex marriage in its manifesto, the party has repeatedly vetoed marriage equality for same-sex couples in Northern Ireland. The DUP also have strong historical links with Loyalist paramilitary groups.
A Conservative/DUP coalition will become a party of chaos and confusion where some of its members are strongly anti-abortion and some are not, where some do not support gay rights or same sex marriage and some do and just how will Arlene Foster react to those conservative MP's who are in same sex relationships. There is also the issue of Theresa Mays support of blood sports like fox hunting, somehow I can't ever see Arlene Foster agreeing to support that.
With Theresa May all set to do a deal with the DUP, this writer is calling for all Tory MP's with a conscience to Cross the Floor on the 19th of June. I will also be encouraging others to Lobby their MP's to do the same. You can do this by writing to them and can also express your views using twitter #demandtheycross
To "Cross the Floor" in Parliament means literally to change sides: to leave one political party and join another.
This expression comes from the seating arrangements in the commons where the ruling party sit on the right and the opposition sit on the left. To notify the house of a change of party allegiance, an elected MP simply crosses the floor of the House from one side of the Chamber to the other.
There are no rules requiring the resignation of an MP who leaves one political party for another. A convention that the Member changing parties does not resign to fight a by-election accords with the arguments of Edmund Burke in the late 18th century. This MP, himself a rebel in a number of policy areas, considered that a Member was a representative rather than a delegate. Historically, the Commons has acted on the principle that all Members of the House of Commons are individually elected, and voters put a “cross against the name of a candidate”. While decisions on candidates may be affected by their party labels, MPs are free to develop their own arguments once elected, until it is time to face the voters in the next general election.
A notable example of an MP who switched parties is Winston Churchill, who Crossed the Floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals in 1904, before later crossing back in 1924.
In 2007, Quentin Davies left the Conservatives to join Labour, arguing that his former party appeared "to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything".
Robert Jackson, left the Conservative Party for the Labour Party, in January 2005.
Shaun Woodward, who was elected as a Conservative Member in Witney in 1997, crossed the floor in December 1999. At the general election in 2001, he was elected as a Labour Member in St Helens South.
You can express your views on twitter using #demandtheycross
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