Recall: update

This week 120,000 of us signed the petition calling for real recall – a law that would give constituents the power to sack MPs who aren’t doing their jobs properly.

It looks like the government will announce their sham recall law next week. They will put a committee of MPs in the driving seat when deciding whether MPs should be sacked – rather than their constituents.

The big stumbling block which the government could use as an excuse is that real recall wouldn’t work in practice. Together, we need to prove it can. So the 38 Degrees office team has come up with an ambitious plan to do just that:

• We’ve been in touch with a top lawyer and she’s on hand to write a water-tight recall law.[3]
• We’ll set up a committee of MPs to scrutinise our draft law, we’ve already got senior Conservative MP, David Davis, to chair the committee.
• Next week, 38 Degrees members can help persuade their MPs to sign an EDM (a petition for MPs) supporting real recall.
• We’ll then write an expert briefing – which 38 Degrees members can send every MP.
• To make sure we’re on the front foot, we’ll also need our lawyer to analyse and write a response to anything that the government publishes.

To do all this, we need the money to make it possible. It will cost around £20,000. Can you help by chipping in a few pounds to make this plan a reality? Click here to make a secure donation now so that we can get to work straight away.

A real recall law would be an important step towards improving democracy. And what better way to achieve this than by using people powered funding to write, publicise and scrutinise the law? Our recall law could be held up in parliament by MPs to bat off any excuses the government gives.

We know that this strategy works – we used similar tactics last month when together, we convinced the government to amend the hospital closure clause. Everything we did together worked – and it can work again.

We’ve already got a host of MPs from all parties on side. If enough of us chip in to fund this ambitious plan – we’ll be one step ahead of the government. We’ll be in the best possible position to get a recall law which gives voters the chance to sack MPs who aren’t doing their job properly.