The government “can’t imagine” how it would function without patronage, Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin says. He went on: “They’re used to exercising it… and are scared of losing it.”
It’s for precisely this reason that the public administration select committee, chaired by Jenkin, is calling for the total number of ministerial positions to be reduced, and for governments to stop appointing unpaid ministers. They’ve already put this proposition to the government, but found the lack of enthusiasm for the idea “disappointing”. Commenting on the report, Jenkin went further, saying:
“The government say they are keeping ministerial numbers “under review” but that is political code their refusal to engage with the committee on this recommendation.”
The committee’s report, published today, is adamant that the large numbers of ministers on the government payroll at the moment, particularly the number of PPSs, “reduces the effectiveness of the House in its role in calling the government to account.”
The baffling thing for Jenkin and his committee is that these changes wouldn’t even necessarily have to have any effect on the current government.
“Seeing that this is about the next Parliament and not the present Parliament, it’s about after the boundary commission changes have taken place, I don’t understand why they are rejecting this out of hand.
“It needn’t affect this present government. But there needs to be statuary changes to prevent the executive becoming over dominant in the House of Commons.”
Just last week we had disturbances in the lower echelons of government as David Cameron and his whips vainly attempted to prevent a sizeable Conservative rebellion over last Monday’s EU referendum motion. Of course, more than 80 did rebel, including two PPSs who stepped down and/or were fired as a result.
This is exactly the kind of situation in which Jenkin would like to see unlimited patronage reined in. He says: “the government should not have unlimited patronage with PPSs and there should be a voluntary restraint on the number of PPSs. There may even have been promises made in order to buy votes on Monday. That is not unknown.”
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