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By Ned Simons - 5th October 2010
Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie has said Parliament is stuck in the past at needs radical reform, although he stopped short of calling for a "new gunpowder plot".
Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham this afternoon, the chair of the Treasury committee said the Palace of Westminster needed "drastic modernisation" to make it fit the working life of a modern MP.
"Parliament has many of the features of a late Victorian relic," Tyrie said. He explained that present day MPs have to contend with more letters and emails from constituents and pressure to be seen to be in the Commons chamber or out and about in the constituency than ever before.
He warned: "Never have MPs worked harder and been less corrupt but been held in lower regard."
But Tyrie said that it would be a mistake to attribute the decline in standing of politicians simply to the expenses scandal, which he said was the result of "an incompetent Speaker advised by a clerk who was an expert in medieval history".
His comments echoed those of Labour MP Stella Creasy who described the Palace of Westminster as "Hogwarts gone wrong" during the equivalent fringe event at the Labour Party conference last week.
The Chichester MP was debating the politicians as 'jack of all trades' on a panel that included the leader of the House of Commons Sir George Young, health committee chair Stephen Dorrell and modernising MP Nicholas Boles.
Tyrie suggested that one way to improve the Commons would be to copy the practice of many other legislatures and re-build the chamber to incorporate desks and computer screens enabling MPs to check their emails while sitting in on debates. Although he admitted this would probably be one reform too far.
Such a move to reshape the chamber would probably require a "new gunpowder plot" he joked, which he stressed he was not advocating.
Tyrie also said the parliamentary staff were a problem. "If we want to reform Parliament we need to reform the staff," he said. "They are basically a 19th century institution".
Although he was quick to point out that the parliamentary staff were "delightful and extremely clever people" who worked incredibly hard. Best not to upset them too much.
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