The 2020 Chairman and Deputy Chairmen of Ways and Means of the British House of Commons election took place on 8 January 2020. Dame Eleanor Laing was elected Chairman of Ways and Means, Dame Rosie Winterton was elected First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means and Nigel Evans was elected Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means.[1]
Procedure
editThe Chairman and Deputy Chairmen of Ways and Means are all elected at the same election, which takes place sometime after the election of the Speaker, and uses the Single Transferable Vote voting system. The first candidate reaching the quota is elected as the chairman, the second candidate reaching the quota is elected as the first deputy chairman and the third candidate reaching the quota is elected as the second deputy chairman, but there are rules on who can be elected.
The chairman and second deputy chairman must be elected from the opposite side of the House as the Speaker while the first deputy chairman must come from the same side of the House as the Speaker.[2] This happens to make sure that the governing and opposition parties lose the same amount of votes, as the Speaker and the Chairman and Deputy Chairmen of Ways and Means do not take part in parliamentary proceedings and do not get involved in party matters.[1]
This can lead to candidates being automatically elected without anyone voting for them if they are the only candidate from the same side of the House as the Speaker, which has happened in this election in the case of Dame Rosie Winterton being automatically elected as First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means.
Candidates
editThe official lists of candidates, and their sponsors are as follows[3]:
- Sir David Amess - Sarah Champion, Rehman Chishti, Rosie Cooper, Martyn Day, Jackie Doyle-Price, Mark Francois, Mary Glindon, Gillian Keegan, Julian Lewis, Andrew Rosindell
- Peter Bone - Chris Heaton-Harris, Philip Davies, Tom Pursglove, Tom Hunt, Philip Hollobone, David Jones, William Wragg, Christopher Chope, Marcus Fysh, Richard Fuller
- Nigel Evans - David Davis, Joanna Cherry, Caroline Nokes, Nicola Richards, Kate Griffiths, Andy Carter, Rehman Chishti, Carolyn Harris, Tracey Crouch, Eddie Hughes
- Robert Goodwill - Jeremy Hunt, Dan Jarvis, Tim Farron, Jacob Young, Helen Grant, Luke Pollard, Lisa Cameron, Anna McMorrin, Scott Benton, Dame Eleanor Laing
Result
edit| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Conservative | Dame Eleanor Laing | 53.8 | 307 | |||
| Conservative | Nigel Evans | 26.1 | 149 | 177.56 | 188.4 | |
| Conservative | Robert Goodwill | 9.5 | 54 | 122.88 | 125.30 | |
| Conservative | David Amess | 7.4 | 42 | 54.6 | 60.44 | |
| Conservative | Peter Bone | 3.3 | 19 | 23.2 | ||
| Electorate: 642 Valid: 571 Spoilt: 2 (0.4%) Quota: 190.34 Turnout: N/A | ||||||
As Dame Rosie Winterton was the only candidate from the opposition, as per the rules she was automatically elected as First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means.
References
edit- ^ a b "Parliament: Three deputy Speakers elected by MPs". BBC News. 2020-01-08. Retrieved 2024-06-22.
- ^ "Commons Deputy Speakers". Retrieved 22 June 2024.
- ^ "Deputy Speakers elected". 9 January 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2024.
- ^ "Deputy Speaker Election 2020 - Result Sheet" (PDF). Retrieved 22 June 2024.