Brown backs move to give Commons committees more independence

Gordon Brown today backed proposals to allow chairs and members of selected committees to be elected on a secret vote to give the Commons scrutiny bodies more independence from the government. The prime minister said the government would make time for a debate on proposed reforms to rebuild parliament's independence from the executive, published last November, though he fell short of agreeing to a free vote on each recommendation outlined in the Commons reform committee's report, entitled Rebuilding the House. The prime minister signalled his endorsement of several proposals after being pressed by Labour backbencher Michael Meacher at question time today for a debate and a free vote on the report after complaining that the government had promised a debate in the house within two months of the report's publication. The report suggests a number of measures to rebuild parliament's independence from the executive, including a new body of elected backbenchers responsible for organising Commons business and giving the public some direct say over what MPs debate, through devices such as e-petitions. Prime minister's questions would be shifted from Wednesday to Thursday afternoon to free up more time for backbenchers on Wednesday. It calls for select committees to be streamlined and given more independence from the government so they are able to scrutinise Whitehall departments more thoroughly. Their chairmen ought to be elected by the whole house in a secret vote, rather than agreed in effect between the party whips, it says. Brown told MPs today: "The government will make time available for a debate ... The government wants the house to agree a way forward and we will therefore propose accepting many of the recommendations including electing chairs of the select committee, electing members of select committees, scheduling non-government business and strengthening the role of backbenchers to hold the government to account."