Petitions,Polling Stations and Paisley: the First Outworking of the Recall of MPs Act 2015

The Recall of MPs Act 2015 allows constituents to petition for their MP to be unseated. A petition of recall is opened, for six weeks, if an MP has received a custodial sentence or been suspended from the House of Commons for ten or more sitting days. Should 10 per cent of constituents sign the petition, a by‐election is required, which the deposed MP has the right to contest. The first test of the Act came in 2018, when Ian Paisley, MP for North Antrim, was suspended from the Commons for thirty days. This article examines how the Act was implemented and assesses whether procedural oddities played any part in the petition failing to attract sufficient signatures to trigger a by‐election.