Nigel Farage’s election as MP for Clacton in last week’s general election was a matter of red tape.
Nigel Farage and the four Reform Party election winners were sworn in this week to the House of Commons, the lower house of Britain’s bicameral parliament. Farage was one of the last of the new MPs to be sworn in on Thursday morning, while Lee Anderson, Richard Tice, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdoch were all sworn in on Wednesday afternoon.
The five, like the rest of the new parliament, were elected in last week’s general election but, by convention, cannot become full members of parliament until they are sworn in by the royal family — the concept of political power in the British system. Meanwhile, the king took an oath to “serve and not be served” to the British people at his coronation, completing the cycle in a modern constitutional monarchy.
Without taking the oath, MPs cannot speak in debates, vote or receive a salary. Once they have completed the traditional procedures, they are considered to have won their seats. MPs who attempt to take part in parliamentary activities without taking the oath are liable to fines, expulsion and their seats are subject to re-election.
While the oath remains an important part of the process for becoming a member of Parliament, in practice it has lost much of its formality: Members can choose to swear on a Bible or not, and those with no religious beliefs can choose to swear or pronounce a “solemn oath”.
The process is so flexible that people who, when taking the oath, profess contempt for the process and even for the King, can still be considered to have done their job and be recognised as MPs. For example, Labour MP Clive Lewis began his comments by saying: “I took the oath in protest and in the hope that one day the people will decide democratically to live in a republic.”
Colum Eastwood, leader of the Social Democrats and Labour Party, said: “I have read this empty boilerplate message on behalf of my constituents but it has been protested… My true loyalties are to the people of Derry and the people of Ireland.”
But there are other MPs who take not taking an oath to the King so seriously that they refuse to do so even as a performative expression of protest (such as the Irish Republicans in Sinn Féin), who have a long tradition of not taking their seats at all, thus giving up the ability to influence national politics by voting on bills and MPs’ salaries.
But there was no such complexity on display among the Reformed senators this week, who took their oath in the most traditional way: on the King James Version (KJV), a 17th-century English translation of the Bible that remains a key text throughout the English-speaking world, including among Baptists, Pentecostals, Anglicans and Presbyterians in the UK and the US.
Watch: Farage is booed during first Westminster speech after attacking anti-Brexit Speaker Bercowhttps://t.co/CgiFrbrfcf
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 9, 2024
