Benched

In the UK, the opposition is assigned three main roles: to oppose the government, to criticise it, and to seek to replace it. This constitutional position was formalised in the 1930s with the first statutory recognition of the leader of the opposition when they were awarded a salary. The existence, and empowerment, of opposition to government is seen as a central concept of British democracy.

Nevertheless, the surviving Conservative MPs who moved across the house following July’s election are likely to have had a rude awakening. The UK’s opposition parties are massively disempowered in comparison to the governing party (or parties), including in terms of their access to both information about government policy and the civil service. As MPs, opposition members can put questions to the government and interrogate its representatives in parliament, but they have nothing like the same resources to be able to develop policy positions on what the government is doing, let alone develop their own policies.

All opposition parties receive public funding to perform their parliamentary role, allocated based on a formula calculated according to each party’s electoral success in terms of seats and votes. All parties with more than two MPs get additional support to develop policy. But they get very little specific support to set themselves up in opposition, often being left to arrive in some recently vacated rooms on the parliamentary estate and work out for themselves how to be effective.

The biggest impediment to being effective as an opposition party is the lack of control you have over the parliamentary agenda. Notionally, opposition whips work with government whips via the ‘usual channels’ to agree things like how long the Commons will spend scrutinising particular pieces of legislation, but in practice, all the power over such decisions sits with the government. This means it can be hard to ensure time is spent on your priorities as an opposition, rather than the things that the government wants to talk about.

To be an effective opposition, then, Badenoch and her party will need to make the most of the opportunities the Conservatives are afforded in recognition of its official opposition status. In the chamber, these include the right of the leader of the official opposition to ask questions of the prime minister, and for the shadow cabinet to speak in response to government statements and to participate in bill debates. The official opposition gets the lion’s share of these opportunities, which can provide visibility at high profile moments, while other opposition parties have to fight for the remaining scraps of parliamentary time. The official opposition also has the right to provide candidates for deputy speaker and participate in the governance of the Commons, which gives them some limited influence over the running of parliament.

One of the most important opportunities for opposition parties to hold the government to account is for their MPs to sit on select committees. By convention the Public Accounts Committee – which scrutinises government spending – is always chaired by a member of the official opposition; in September, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown assumed the role. Other chairs and seats are allocated according to the party make-up of the Commons. Committees provide an opportunity to ask challenging questions of ministers in public, but also to develop constructive recommendations and – for individuals – to build the cross-party relationships that are so crucial to advancing your priorities as an MP in parliament.

While the largest opposition party’s main job day to day may be to critique and hold the government to account, their constitutional role also includes being a government-in-waiting. The current official opposition has the benefit of recent experience in government, but for oppositions who have been out of power for longer there is little support to prepare to take over if the electorate was to call upon them. Throughout its history, the Institute for Government has sought to fill this gap by supporting oppositions to prepare for the possibility of power, but there is much more that could be done. It is in the interests of the country to ensure the opposition is given the resources it needs to do the job that the country asks of it.

Image credit: UK Parliament, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons