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Court may rule on MP status

By ADVERTISER REPORTER - 02-04-1999

The Court of Appeal could rule that Fiona Jones is reinstated as MP for Newark if she wins her appeal. 

Labour chief whip Mrs Ann Taylor has written to her Tory counterpart Mr James Arbuthnot saying it was up to the Court of Appeal to interpret the law if the appeal was successful.

"The Labour Party wants to ensure that the people of Newark are without a Member of Parliament for as short a time as possible," she wrote.

"Fiona Jones has appealed against her conviction. The Court of Appeal has agreed to hear the appeal early, on April 13.

"The Court of Appeal will decide whether the conviction stands or not.

"If this appeal is successful, we will have to await the Court of Appeal's interpretation of Section 160 Subsection (4), and Section 173 of the Representation of the People Act 1983.

"In these circumstances, it would in our view be clearly wrong to call a by-election whilst this appeal is on-going."

Fiona Jones automatically lost her seat when she was convicted of making a false declaration of election expenses by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court.

Mrs Taylor's letter was quoted in the House of Commons on Monday by Leader of the House Mrs Margaret Beckett in response to a Conservative attempt to set a date for a by-election.

Mrs Beckett also said that the Speaker of the House, Betty Boothroyd, had not declared a by-election on March 22 when she had reported the decision of the court and the outcome of that decision - that Mrs Jones was disqualified from the moment of conviction on March 19 and that the seat was vacant.

Mr Arbuthnot had moved a motion in the House to set a date for the by-election on April 22. It was defeated by 260 votes to 97.

Normal Parliamentary convention is that the party which formerly held the seat moves a by-election writ.

Mr Arbuthnot said: "However, Madam Speaker, last week you announced that a by-election will take place because an election court had found that the seat of Newark was won by Labour in circumstances involving election fraud.

"Therefore we believe that the convention does not apply."

Mr Arbuthnot said he had written to Mrs Taylor saying if she did not move the writ, he would.

He said that by opposing his writ Labour was denying the people of Newark the right to be represented in Parliament.

Labour sources accepted that the seat was vacant. The issue now was the way in which it would be filled.

Last week the Labour Party told the Advertiser that they were 'not necessarily' waiting for the outcome of Mrs Jones' appeal before announcing the date of a by-election.

If a by-election is to be held on May 6 - the date of local elections - a Labour Party spokesman told the Advertiser the latest that Parliament could be told of the date would be April 13 - the day of Mrs Jones' appeal.

That would make it more likely that any election would be held on June 10, the date of the Euro- elections.

 

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