Green MP calls for commons overhaul, with electronic voting and electoral reform

Speaking in a debate on a government-backed plan to ban MPs taking second jobs, a Green Party MP has called for a commons rules overhaul.

Ellie Chowns, the MP for North Herefordshire, said it was “extraordinary” that the commons continues to rely on MPs physically casting their vote, as she urged the government to modernise House rules.

Chowns said: “It’s extraordinary to me that we do not have electronic voting…. While I’ve been here, I’ve participated in five votes and that’s taken at least an hour and a quarter.

“If you add up each of those votes, it adds up to basically a month’s worth of MP time.”

Summing up her remarks, Chowns concluded: “So let’s get rid of the voting lobbies. We could double the physical size of the chamber if you got rid of the voting lobbies. That’s a genuine, practical suggestion.

“[Let’s] take the opportunity of the decanting process and the newbie MPs to really modernise how we operate here.”

She added: “And my final point, if we want to be a truly modern House of Commons: proportional representation.”

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