Ah, so naughty old George Galloway was allegedly in the pay of Saddam Hussein. Well this got me wondering about the practicalities of resigning as a Member of Parliament.
You may be suprised to learn that it is not technically possible for an MP to resign their position as a Member of Parliament.
Under a resolution of the House of Commons of 2 March 1623 (yes that really is 1623, not a typo), which is still in force today, 380 years later, members cannot directly resign their seat.
The reason for this being that in the past, serving in Parliament was often regarded as an obligation to be accepted only reluctantly, not an honour eagerly to be sought. (oh how times have changed!). Therefore, it was necessary to discourage resignation.
The way a Member of Parliament could legally resign was to accept a paid office of the Crown. The reasoning behind this is that a Member of Parliament receiving a salary from the Crown could not be expected to scrutinise the actions of the Crown or the Crown's government. In practical terms today, this applies to Judges for example.
Anyway, what paid offices of the crown exist today to facilitate the resignation of a Member of Parliament? Well there are two, the Crown Steward and Baliff of the three Children Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham, the other choice being the Manor of Northstead. (For sheer pomposity of the title, I would go for the Chilten Hundreds every time!)
Rather than resign, the MP applies to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent of the Treasury Secretary for you US Folks) for one of the above positions. After applying for the position, the Chancellor of the Exchequer issues a warrant of appointment notifying the (ex) MP of his new office.
After the warrant of appointment is issued, a writ for a by-election can be issued, allowing for a new MP to be voted in for the constituency vacated by the ex-MP.
The two positions tend to be granted alternately, and the ex-MP holds the position until the Chancellor of the Exchequer appoints another applicant.
and that concludes todays history lesson.
[More info than you could ever possibly want about this can be found on the UK Parliament website via this PDF factsheet. ]
Good to see oyu back by the way :)
The history is fascinating, though you Brits do it all wrong. What fun is it if we can't drum someone out of office without these technicalities?