NO BYELECTION will be called for the West Belfast House of Commons seat held by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, because he has not properly resigned as an MP, the office of the speaker of the House of Commons said last night.
Mr Adams sent a letter of resignation to the speaker last Friday but under 400-year-old rules an MP is forbidden from quitting his seat unless he first applies for a nominally-paid Crown post.
In the House of Commons yesterday, speaker John Bercow, questioned by Democratic Unionist MP Ian Paisley about Mr Adams’s action, said: “There are procedures to be observed and observed they must be.”
Last night a spokeswoman for the speaker said the parliamentary code states explicitly that an MP wanting to resign must apply to the chancellor of the exchequer to be appointed as Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, or Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds.
“The resignation has not been properly served, so therefore is unacceptable. The rules are explicit that you can’t resign until you have applied for one of these Crown appointments,” she said. Because of that, the seat is still occupied and no byelection will be held.
Mr Adams was first elected to the House of Commons for West Belfast in 1983. He lost the seat to Dr Joe Hendron of the SDLP in 1992, regaining it in 1997 and holding it comfortably since then.
“From our position, Gerry Adams has resigned. He informed the speaker on Friday and for us that’s it, it’s a done deal – sin é, basically,” said a Sinn Féin spokesman, who added that he could not comment on Westminster’s insistence that a byelection will not be called.
Sinn Féin cannot move a byelection writ because none of its MPs have ever taken their seats in the Commons, thus meaning that the British government would have to do so.
None of the Sinn Féin MPs are paid for their roles, though they have claimed significant expenses.
Mr Adams could exit his seat by attempting to enter the House of Commons chamber without having taken the Oath of Allegiance, or he could be expelled by a vote of the House – though that happened only three times in the last century.
The Chiltern Hundreds post is occupied by former Democratic Unionist Strangford MP Iris Robinson, who resigned last year.
Appointees hold office often just for minutes, as happens when several MPs resign on the same day.
