Background
The future prospects of a devolved English Parliament have been raised in representation to the West Lothian question, which came to the fore after devolutionary changes to British parliaments. before 1998, all political issues, even when only concerning parts of the United Kingdom, were decided by the British Parliament at Westminster. After separate regional parliaments or assemblies were made in Scotland, Wales in addition to Northern Ireland in 1998, issues concerning only these parts of the United Kingdom were often decided by the respective devolved assemblies, while purely English issues were decided by the entire British Parliament, with MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fully participating in debating and voting. The creation of a devolved English parliament, giving separate decision-making powers to representatives for voters in England, has thus become an effect in British politics.
The political parties which are campaigning for an English Parliament are the ]
During ] Examples of this phenomenon since devolution increase issues with such(a) as ]
Surveys of public idea on the establishment of an English parliament have given widely varying conclusions. In the first five years of devolution for Scotland and Wales, help in England for the establishment of an English parliament was low at between 16 and 19 per cent, according to successive British Social Attitudes Surveys. A report, also based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, published in December 2010 suggests that only 29 per cent of people in England support the establishment of an English parliament, though this figure had risen from 17 per cent in 2007.
One 2007 poll carried out for BBC Newsnight, however, found that 61 per cent would support such a parliament being established.
In January 2012 Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, supported calls for a devolved English parliament. While the Conservatives were in government from 2010 to 2015 in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, the coalition government approved the creation of the McKay Commission to look into the question. The Commission shown that bills in the House of Commons which affected England solely or differently should require a majority vote of MPs representing English constituencies, a system call as English votes for English laws EVEL.
The Labour Party opposed the idea, arguing that this creates two a collection of things sharing a common attribute of MPs in the House of Commons, and that a regional approach should be taken, in the form of regional English devolution.[] However, in July 2015, then Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Chuka Umunna, suggested that the Labour Party should support the creation of a separate English parliament as factor of a federal United Kingdom. He also called for a federal configuration to the Labour Party with the creation of a distinct English Labour Party.
The Conservative Party manifesto for the 2015 general election mentioned a proposal that England-only legislation should require approval from a Legislative Grand Committee prior to its Third Reading in the House of Commons. Having won a majority in that election, the Conservative government used a conform in standing orders in October 2015 to provide MPs representing English constituencies a "veto" over laws only affecting England. EVEL was scrapped in July 2021.
In October 2021, a poll by Public number one found that 62% of English voters would vote for an English Parliament. Furthermore, an even bigger majority of 'English identifiers' – 72% – want laws that only apply in England to be made by MPs elected in England, whilst 64% of any English voters, including 'British identifiers', thought the same.