Sir Desmond Swayne tops private members bill ballot

Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne has won first place in the House of Commons' private members bill (PMB) ballot, giving him the best chance to create his own piece of legislation.

The PMB ballot is held at the start of every parliamentary session, where each backbench MP who enters is allocated a numbered white ball, and 20 balls are randomly pulled from a goldfish bowl.

What Sir Desmond Swayne will do is yet to be decided, but in 2024 he wrote of how he hoped "like hell" to be unsuccessful each time he entered the ballot.

Last session, the winner was Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who brought forward the controversial Assisted Dying Bill, which ran out of time to pass into law.

The PMB ballot is the best way a backbench MP can hope to bring forward a new law by winning cross-party support for a cause or, ideally, having the bill adopted by the government.

Notable PMB successes include the legalisation of abortion (David Steel), homosexuality (Leo Abse) and securing the abolition of the death penalty (Sydney Silverman).

However Sir Desmond's 2024 blog railed against the PMB system, saying his view is "we already have too many laws and that we should be taking time to repeal some of them rather than making even more".

He added: "Nevertheless, every year I obey the instructions of my whip and put my name into the ballot, then I hope like hell that, once again, I will be unsuccessful.

"The unfortunates, who do come in the top ten, will be inundated with pleas from every good cause to sponsor a bill to address some perceived evil."

Asked for his thoughts on winning the PMB ballot, Sir Desmond responded with a single word, written in bold, bright red type: "Regrets".

Pressed on whether he had an issue in mind for his Bill, he added: "Not yet! I need time to think and read the countless email supplications."

Sir Desmond, who is known for his pithy remarks in the Commons, has represented New Forest West for nearly 30 years.

Only the last seven MPs selected are guaranteed debating time, and there are only 13 sitting Fridays set aside in the parliamentary session to deal with PMBs, so they are vulnerable to running out of time.

This is what happened last month, when Leadbeater's Assisted Dying Bill that had been approved by MPs last summer was effectively talked out in the House of Lords and failed to pass its final legislative hurdle.

Supporters will now be looking for a backbencher willing to take that unfinished legislation forward for a second go.

Sir Desmond voted against assisted dying in the Commons, as did the third pick, Conservative MP Mike Wood, so they are both very unlikely to be willing to do so.

However, the second PMB pick, Lauren Edwards, voted in favour of the Bill last time, so we the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood seems a more likely candidate to pick it back up.

The fourth pick was Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George, who told the BBC the option for him to bring back the Bill "is there as a possibility" but that he "won't be rushing to make a decision".

The Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives previously voted in favour of assisted dying, and said he "probably has a dozen subjects" for a Private Members Bill.

George said if he were to take on the Assisted Dying Bill, he "feels it's important the House of Commons demonstrates to the House of Lords we are not prepared to put up with the abuse of power we saw when they aborted the Bill only weeks ago".

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