Has the Role of backbench Mps been enhanced in recent years?

Backbenchers make up the majority of the house of commons as it is the commonly known term for MPs that do not sit on the front benches (shocking I know) which are made up of the cabinet and shadow cabinet. These backbenchers have numerous roles which include getting involved and voting on government legislation, performing government scrutiny and being representatives for their constituencies.

Backbench MPs are vital in the legislative process as it is they who hold the majority of votes within the house of commons. Backbench MPs often have to conform to party lines when voting on policy in order to act as delegates to their party, but in some instances backbench rebellions occur when numerous backbench MPs disagree with particular legislation, for example in 2003 when lots of Labour backbenchers voted against Blair’s influence in the Iraq war. Furthermore, Backbench MPs can get involved in policy-making is through private members bills, even though they are fairly challenging to pass, especially without the governments support. Overtime, Select Committees (made up of backbench MPs) have become more involved in the legislative process, such as the 2016 Exiting the European Union select committee in the Brexit process. Findings made from select committees, however only warrant a response from government and they do not have the authority to enforce the finding into policy.

Scrutiny is very important within our government as it is vital to hold them to account. Back bench MPs can be involved in this form of scrutiny through Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). Such PMQs only take about half an hour and are not compulsory to attend but since John Bercow was voted in as speaker of the house of commons in 2009, involvement and quality of PMQs has dramatically increased as he has shifted focus back onto backbench MPs and to move along long-winded answers so that more questions can be answered. Despite Bercow’s efforts, there is no statistical evidence as to the amount of backbench questions that have led to government action.

There is often conflict over how a backbench MPs represents their constituents within parliament. The first idea is the delegate model whereby that MP should feel obliged to follow the wishes of their constituents, for example voting against any Brexit deals put forth by Theresa May after the 2016 Brexit referendum if their constituency voted to remain within the European Union. This idea, however, does have it’s flaws as it is impossible to account for every constituents beliefs as, due to the FPTP voting system, a strong number of constituents didn’t vote for that MP in the first place, so an MP trying to please everyone is bound to have a strenuous task on their hands. The second idea is that of the trustee model. This model proposes that as a constituency votes for their MP they are more or less passing over their mandate to vote on certain legislation within parliament and their MP, along with their political expertise, is trusted to make good decisions based on their own merit. In modern politics, the politico model is seen as both models are used ,in different situations, by the same MP. Overtime, however, an MPs role in representing their constituents has not been enhanced in any way as both models and their arguments are still being put forward today.