Modernising the House: Why the 2024 Parliament highlights the need to formalise party group rights in the House of Commons

The 2024 General Election underscored how significantly the British political party system is changing. It produced the most fragmented party system in the history of British democracy, with thirteen political parties sending at least one MP to Westminster and a record number of independent MPs. The huge disparity between Reform UK’s 14 per cent share of the popular vote and its five MPs has been ammunition for protests around the minimal rights given to them in the Commons, particularly their lack of any slots on select committees. It has cast a stronger spotlight on the lack of rights given to smaller parliamentary groups and independents, something that the new Modernisation Committee has committed to examine further. This article shows the opacity of small party rights and how they are often based on informal negotiation with key parliamentary players rather than on the Standing Orders. Moreover, it demonstrates how the reluctance to fully integrate smaller parties into parliamentary procedures reinforces a democratic and representational deficit and suggests three ways in which this could be remedied.