Trevor Phillips’ four term limit is not great – but is it all we have?

By Mark Day

Trevor Phillips’ idea of a four-term limit on MPs’ careers to increase the diversity of the Commons’ backbenches is getting a bit of a kicking on the Labour blogs at the moment. Even the usually mild mannered Sunder Katwala declares the idea ‘entirely unworkable’.

Luke Akehurst goes further saying the proposal is ‘profoundly undemocratic’ and would lead to a dearth of candidates talented and experienced enough for the cut and thrust of front bench politics. He points out that Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Clem Atlee, Michael Foot, Tony Benn, Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone would all have had their parliamentary careers cut short if Phillip’s proposal had been in place.

Although I sympathise with the motives behind it I do think Phillips is on a bit of a hiding to nothing with his suggestion. As Katwala highlights there is no guarantee a four-term limit would end up increasing the proportion of ethnic minority MPs – both Keith Vaz and Diane Abbott would have had to leave parliament at the last election if the policy had been implemented.

In addition the proposal could create its own diversity problems by artificially lowering the average age of MPs in the Commons. Katwala warns that it would ‘significantly cull the number of MPs aged over 65, despite that being the fastest-growing section of the population’.

Both Akehurst and Katwala are surely right that instead of proposing artificial time limits on MPs careers Phillips ought to be concentrating on ways in which the process of selecting parliamentary candidates can be made more open to ethnic minorities. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that may already be happening.

The Fabian Society has calculated that by 2005 7.5% of the new parliamentary intake were non-white MPs, and there was a similar proportion among candidate selections. According to the research Labour is selecting BME candidates in 10.5% of new candidate selections (ie, where a sitting MP is not running again) and this rises to over 15% in Labour held seats.

Since black and ethnic minority citizens make up 8% of the population, Labour has a strong case to make that judged on the Fabian’s findings its selection procedures are increasingly representative of Britain’s ethnic minority make-up. While we shouldn’t be complacent about the barriers still faced by black and ethnic minorities entering politics, things have come a long way since 1997 when just four of Labour’s 183 new MPs were black or Asian.

Although admittedly, at the current rate of turnover in parliament it will be a long time before the House of Commons reflects the full diversity of British society. Trevor Phillips clearly doesn’t think we can afford to wait. But is there any other democratic option?