Goldsmith lambasts the Coalition’s lack of recall

 
p10 edition 12/7/2012: File photo dated 5/5/2010 of Zac Goldsmith. Westminster watchdog, the Electoral Commission has received a dossier raising questions about campaign spending by the multi-millionaire Conservative MP in the May General Election. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Friday July 16 2010. An investigation by Channel 4 News and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) highlighted Mr Goldsmith's spending on items such as signs, jackets and leaflets in his successful bid to become MP for Richmond Park in south London. See PA story POLITICS Goldsmith. Photo credit should read: Steve Parsons/PA Wire
9 January 2013

One of the Government’s key election pledges that it has missed is its manifesto promise to enable voters to replace unsatisfactory MPs in mid-term through Parliament.

The promise was ushered in with a bang but has so far produced just a whimper, to the increasing annoyance of Tory MP Zac Goldsmith.

“The first draft Recall Bill was abominable,” the Tory member for Richmond Park, who won the seat from the Lib-Dems in 2010, tells me. “Instead of handing power to voters, it would have handed power to a small Parliamentary committee — and effectively to party whips.

“It was widely and rightly criticised, and since then, the Government has gone quiet.”

Goldsmith has devised his own Private Member’s Bill, and had all-party support for a Early Day Motion — apart from the Lib-Dems. But although submitted in June, it will not be debated until March — if at all.

“I will continue to campaign as hard as I can,” Zac says, “but I no longer sense any enthusiasm from the Coalition to go through with its pledge. I believe it will only now come about as a result of public pressure, and I am frustrated that there is so little willingness to engage on this issue.”

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