The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill was debated in Parliament last night.
Andrew Turner’s office inform us that during its second reading, the bill received a Government majority of 59.
The Island MP was joined by nine other Conservative MPs who all voted against the Bill.
According to Mr Turner’s office, Eleanor Laing, the MP for Epping Forest, intervened during Mr Turner’s speech saying that he had ‘a lot’ of support in the Commons and that the Island’s special circumstances should be taken into account as those of Scottish islands had been.
Government visit to the Island
During the course of the debate, the promise of a visit to the Island and involvement in a public debate by either the Deputy Prime Minister or Mark Harper, the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, was made.
Jack Straw, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, complained that ‘the views of the people of the Isle of Wight are wholly to be ignored’.
Following the debate, Andrew Turner said “I was heartened to hear of the support against splitting up the Island from all sides of the House. Now I will be working ‘behind the scenes’ to see if we can get enough support to pass an amendment to the Bill that would ensure one or two MPs solely for the Isle of Wight. That would be the best outcome, but there are other possible amendments that would allow the independent Boundary Commission to take account of local opinion on these matters.
“I want to pay tribute to all the people and organisations who worked so hard for the OneWight campaign over the last few weeks. Some people have complained that the total does not represent a majority of Island residents – but to get this sort of support in a few weeks is very impressive. In Parliamentary terms it is a very significant total.”
Image: Olivier Bruchez under CC BY 2.0
