How can ex-prime ministers return to
the Commons chamber ?
Par Dominique Brière
One of the rarest sights of the 2010
Parliament was spotted last Thursday,
as Gordon Brown made a
fleeting – non-speaking – appearance in
the chamber for Defra questions.
Who would have known that the former
prime minister retained such an interest
in fisheries and rural broadband? Since the
general election back on May 7, this was
just the second time that the Labour MP
for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath has graced
the Palace of Westminster, his first
appearance the simple task of swearingin.
Seven weeks on, the sight of so many
unfamiliar faces on the Tory benches
must have been chastening for a man
more used to the Despatch Box and a
front-row seat.
Residing in Scotland since the election,
Brown’s movements have been the source
of considerable speculation, not all of it
good-natured. Bar the chamber cameo,
Brown’s diary on Thursday took in appointments
with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the
widow of Senator Ted Kennedy. However,
his decision to drop into his nominal workplace
has got the bar-dwellers wondering
when he will be back for good.
It’s a question that former prime ministers
haven’t tended to face in recent years, and
one which, as it is asked ever more audibly,
begins to put pressure on a man rather
too familiar with the sensation of late.
After speaking for the last time as prime
minister in June 2007, Tony Blair never set
foot in the chamber again. Never a Commons
man, as he himself admitted, Blair
strode out of Westminster and into a globetrotting
existence far above the small-fry
existence of the average parliamentarian.
After losing the May 1997 election to
Blair, John Major returned to the Commons
chamber days later to congratulate
Betty Boothroyd on her re-election as
Speaker, before taking part a week later
in the debate on the Queen’s Speech. “I
willingly give them the good will and, for
the sake of the country, I wish them
luck,” he told the House while welcoming
Blair’s new government. Major led the
Tory party until June, by which point
William Hague was elected as his successor,
and continued to speak in the
chamber until standing down in 2001.
The lecture circuit, cricket-watching, and
occasional political commentary
keeps him busy.
After spending Christmas digesting
her November 1990 ousting
as Conservative leader, Margaret Thatcher
was back in the chamber the
following January, with her final contribution,
that October, an interjection
during a speech made by her predecessor,
Edward Heath. She stood down in
1992, entering the Lords that year.
Between Heath and Thatcher came two
Labour prime ministers, Harold Wilson
and Jim Callaghan. Wilson quit in March
1976, returning to the chamber that
December. “I feel almost like asking for
the indulgence of the House in addressing
it for the first time for nearly a
quarter of a century from the back
benches,” he told MPs. He remained in
the Commons until 1983. Callaghan,
after losing the May 1979 general election,
remained as leader of the Labour
Party until autumn 1980, remaining as
an MP – and, like Heath, becoming
father of the House – until 1987. Both
were elevated to the peerage.
Sulking after his defeat to Thatcher in
the Conservative Party leadership contest
of 1975, Heath continued to speak from
the back benches. He remained an active
Commons presence until he stood down,
as father of the House, in 2001, turning
down the post of ambassador to the United
States to remain on the green benches.
One might imagine that the most recently
ousted ex-prime minister would jump at
the chance to become our man in
Washington, given his fondness for Cape
Cod holidays and all things stateside.
Roles at the IMF or the World Bank have
also been rumoured, though for now,
Brown himself has only said that he
doesn’t “want to do business or anything
else, I just want to do something good’’.
For now, Gordon Brown remains in the
strange limbo land of being an MP who
seemingly feels he no longer belongs at
Westminster.¦
* The House Magazine, partenaire britannique de La Revue Parlementaire,
a été créé en 1976 par un groupe de députés afin de
traiter et débattre de l’ordre du jour parlementaire de manière impartiale
mais incisive. Il est depuis 30 ans l’hebdomadaire des parlementaires
britanniques.
