Recall – Put Voters in Charge of MPs

Tomorrow, we have the chance to persuade MPs to back a new law that would give voters the power to sack MPs who don’t do their job properly. It could be a massive step forward for people power: just imagine if we’d been able to fire the MPs who abused the expenses system.

This new law- proposed by Zac Goldsmith MP– would give voters in each constituency the power to call a fresh vote if 10% of them sign a petition. Most MPs will still be deciding what to do about the debate Friday. A well-attended, noisy debate about giving voters the right to sack MPs is just what’s needed to get the government to stick to their promises.

The government will be hoping that hardly any MPs bother to show up. That way, they can stick to their plan for a much weaker recall law that would end up giving MPs even more power. They might even try to quietly drop the idea altogether.

But if thousands of us email our MPs and ask them to back a new “recall” law, we can make sure loads of MPs turn up to the debate on Friday. Lots of us talking about plans for a powerful new recall law will build the pressure on the government to toughen up their own weak plans.

Back in May 2009, a recall law was the first thing 38 Degrees members decided to work on together. Even though there were just a few thousand of us back then, we helped to persuade key MPs to back the idea. Now we’ve teamed up with Unlock Democracy, who’ve been working with Zac Goldsmith MP to get the recall law back on the agenda.

Once you’ve got in touch with your MP, it would be great if you could share your MP’s reply in the comments section below, so that other 38 Degrees members can see where our MPs stand.