The House of Commons has voted to amend the risk-based exclusion policy to ensure MPs can be excluded from the parliamentary estate at the point of arrest for serious sexual or violent offences.
MPs face being barred from attending Parliament if they are arrested for serious sexual or violent offences after the Commons voted to reverse moves to water down the measures.
The House of Commons Commission initially proposed that a risk assessment would take place on whether an MP should be prevented from attending the parliamentary estate if they were arrested on suspicion of committing a violent or sexual offence.
The proposal was later revised so the threshold for a ban was at the point of charge.
But MPs voted 170 to 169, majority one, in favour of a proposal from Liberal Democrat Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) to revert to the threshold being an arrest.
Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt has said the number of MPs and Lords that had been victim of “vexatious” harassment claims was “surprisingly large”.
She said: “Many members raised the comparison about the profession that we’re in and other professions, particularly the police force, and of course the police themselves may be also subject, not infrequently, to vexatious claims made against them for all kinds of reasons.
“But I would say the volume of members of both Houses that have come to see me during this process, who have been victim of vexatious claims, was surprisingly large.”
Ms Mordaunt also clarified that the risk-based exclusion practices would apply to the Speaker and deputy-speakers, stating “if they were panel members, they would clearly recuse themselves as they would in other scenarios.”
Labour MP Jess Phillips, who pressed the case for exclusion at the point of arrest, told the Commons: “Today, just on this one day, I have spoken to two women who were raped by members of this Parliament; that’s a fairly standard day for me.
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“I notice these are not the people who have so far been mentioned much today and some of them told me what they wanted me to say.”
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg described the plans for risk-based exclusion of MPs from Parliament as an “extraordinary power grab by standing orders to undermine a fundamental of our constitution”.
