Clacton Constitutional Crisis

MPs are not allowed to resign from Parliament. However, a parliamentary loophole exists that allows an MP to vacate their seat by asking the Chancellor of the Exchequer to disqualify them from sitting in the Commons.  An MP can do this by requesting, and accepting, office as either the Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, or Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. Both offices (or jobs) are nominal. They exist in name only, have no responsibilities and are unpaid.  The Chancellor of the Exchequer, by precedents established since the 1770s, in effect must grant the office to any MP who requests it. Once they appoint someone to the Chiltern Hundreds, the previous holder of the office loses the role, and this can be done multiple times in a day. In December 1985, for instance, 15 Ulster Unionist MPs resigned on the same day (by alternating between appointments to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead).

However, no other MP has resigned since Nigel Farage.  This means Nigel Farage is still the incumbent Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead and is therefore barred from becoming an MP if elected unless the Chancellor of the Exchequer appoints someone else to the role and as there are no other resigning MPs to appoint to it how can Nigel become an MP again if he holds an office that bars him from being an MP?  In this situation who will the next Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead be?  This may sound like nit-picking but perhaps the system of these offices being continually refilled by the next resigning MP was constructed to prevent someone resigning and then re-standing in a manufactured byelection?

So who is the incumbent Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead - I think we should be told?

Mr Speaker writes:

Dear Mr Miller

Mr Speaker thanks you for your email and has asked me to respond on his behalf.

As you rightly say, the titles of the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, and the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead are “nominal offices of profit under the Crown”. Both titles are used as procedural mechanisms to allow MPs to resign their parliamentary seats.

In the scenario you present – and now that Nigel Farage has re-elected  - the position you refer to has fallen vacant, though as the it holds no powers, there is no consequence.

There are a number of precedents to this, the last of which occurred in 2008 when David Davis resigned his seat on 18th June 2008 and becoming the Steward of the Chiltern Hundred. He stood in the subsequent by-election and was re-elected on 10th July 2008. The position was then not filled until 2009, when another MP resigned his seat.

Mr Speaker thanks you again for the interest you have taken in the working of Parliament and sends his best wishes.

Regards