Growing Tory revolt over Cameron's election vote threshold

Published on Friday 14 May 2010 23:22

DAVID Cameron is facing growing calls from his own back-benches to abandon plans to make it more difficult for opposition MPs to force an election if the new coalition government is defeated on a vote of confidence.

Charles Walker yesterday became the first Tory MP to speak out publicly against the plan to require a vote of 55 per cent of MPs before parliament can be dissolved prior to the end of its five-year term.

The measure was part of the deal to reassure the Liberal Democrats that Mr Cameron could not pull out of the coalition and call a snap general election when they were at a disadvantage.

However, Mr Walker, the MP for Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, denounced the plan as a threat to the "primacy of parliament" and said it was being introduced simply for the "convenience" of the Lib-Con coalition.

"This is a matter of convenience because clearly the leader of our party, David Cameron, wants a five-year parliament and the Liberal Democrats want fixed terms and they don't want there to be a general election along the way," he said.

His concerns are believed to be shared by a number of other Conservative MPs.

The Prime Minister yesterday insisted he was standing firm on the issue.

However, the danger for Mr Cameron is that the issue could provide a rallying point for Tory MPs unhappy at the pact with the Lib Dems.

Veteran Tory Richard Ottaway, a front-runner for the chairmanship of the Conservatives' 1922 Committee of back-benchers, said the 55 per cent plan would "undermine the primacy of parliament".

Another senior Tory MP, Christopher Chope, warned the plan was "unsustainable" and could be a "recipe for anarchy" if the government lost its majority.