Under the whip
Peter Cheney explores the mysterious world of the whips, who control most of the Assembly’s business, and considers the scope for free votes.
While little known in public, the whip can be a feared figure in the chamber. Charged with organising and disciplining a party’s members, the position has its origins in hunting. A ‘whipper-in’ was the 18th century huntsman’s assistant who kept the hounds from straying.
Sir Joseph Porter, a Gilbert and Sullivan character, would be any whip’s ideal politician. “I always voted at my party’s call, and I never thought of thinking for myself at all,” he rhymed.
MLAs are generally grouped under their parties’ whip. The United Community group, which brings together Alliance, Brian Wilson and Kieran Deeny, is an exception; this is overseen by Alliance chief whip Kieran McCarthy.
In the cycle for an Assembly plenary session, whips firstly set the agenda on the Business Committee, including the timings of debates and any amendments.
Whips try to garner support for their party’s motions. As the SDLP’s Pat Ramsey explains: “This may involve a certain degree of bartering and trade in return for our support for their motions or Bills.”
Groups meet to decide their line after this is published. The whip then ensures that members are available to speak, in order, or that ‘friendly questions’ are put to the Minister. On the floor, he or she also gets members to turn up for the debate and the vote.
Instructions to vote may be underlined one, two or three times. Pat Ramsey explains that most SDLP votes are ‘two- line whips’ i.e. members are advised of party policy and need prior permission to miss a debate. A ‘three-line whip’ is a strict instruction to attend and vote.
Free votes
A party will allow its members to vote on conscience but these are rare in most legislatures. Free votes have been permitted in the following Assembly debates, by some but not all parties:
• Abortion (20 June 2000);
• Assisted suicide (12 October 2009);
• Hare coursing (22 June 2010);
• Hunting (15 December 2010).
“In Northern Ireland, a lot of parties will tend to come with reasonably clear cut views on a certain range of moral issues which wouldn’t necessarily be the case in Westminster,” the DUP’s Peter Weir remarks. He finds “a greater sense of loyalty, one with the other” and most parties are “not just quite a broad church as you would get at Westminster.”
The SDLP permits free votes where the issue is one of personal conscience or an important specific constituency interest. “It is impossible to forecast which issues come up which would require a free vote,” Ramsey comments. Alliance members differ on abortion, Kieran McCarthy remarks, “but the party is big enough to allow that.”
Decisions made at party conferences are binding on Sinn Féin and SDLP MLAs, which explains Sinn Féin’s opposition to a hare-coursing ban. However, the other parties took no line and the atmosphere was transformed, as one backbencher observed.
“People actually were able to listen carefully to the various points made and vote on the basis of the points that were made and on the basis of their consciences,” the MLA stated, having found the debate “extremely refreshing” and “intelligent” compared to normal business.
Several members want to see a livelier chamber with less ‘stage management’. Kieran McCarthy points out that an MLA can ask a Minister a supplementary question but cannot challenge a poor answer to it: “I think it’s very dull. It’s frustrating for us that you can’t disagree with a Minister.”
Rebellion
Rebels pose the greatest challenge for whips. Indeed, some MLAs have lost the whip after dissenting from party policy e.g. Declan O’Loan (suggesting a single nationalist party), Francie Molloy (objecting to super-councils) and Peter Weir (opposing David Trimble’s re- election as First Minister).
Weir later joined the DUP and now sits as its chief whip.
“There is a slight degree of irony,” he quips. “Maybe I am ‘fox turned hound’ in that regard. What it does show is the need for any party to try to move forward with consensus.” The DUP, in his view, aims to “take everybody with us” or at least the bulk of members.
Removing the whip is a “nuclear” option in the DUP, according to Weir: “We would always try and avoid anybody voting against the party position”.
DUP discipline, of course, includes prepared resignation letters by which the party leader can ‘resign’ an MLA. The leader can then co-opt a preferred replacement. Reg Empey has condemned the practice as unparliamentary but Peter Weir asserts that the electorate votes on party lines.
“I think people want to know that when they are voting for a party, they are voting for a particularly set of views, not a disorganised rabble,” he comments. Across the parties, potential rebels are allowed to ‘go for a walk’ or disappear in some other way during the debate. Parties can fine members who defy the whip.
A small amount of patronage is in Peter Weir’s gift. The DUP leader appoints ministers, committee chairs and vice-chairs while delegating the additional committee seats falls to the chief whip. Weir also acts as a conduit, passing on backbenchers’ concerns to the Speaker’s office and his party’s ministers.
Comparisons
The larger size of the Commons and Dáil allows rebels to group together within parties. Some Conservative or Labour whips may “barely know” some of their MPs, Weir suggests.
To Queen’s academic Rick Wilford, Stormont has a very different culture, where “MLAs tend to be party animals rather than Assembly creatures or committee creatures.”
As parties are linked to communities, an MLA who strays from the party line risks being seen as a “traitor”. The “corset of constraints” in the way the institutions are designed gives whips an easy time: “I think MLAs internalise the need to keep the party-community line. It’s part and parcel of their actual make-up.”
Wales’ voluntary coalition includes 40 of its 60 Assembly members so differences are negotiated out between Labour and Plaid Cymru. However, the SNP has to keep all its MSPs in line. Just one vote separates it from Scottish Labour. The precariousness of the Irish Government also shows how discipline or rebellion can determine a government’s plans or indeed its survival.
Beyond the whip
Alan McFarland, who previously worked in Parliament, shared his thoughts on the system.
“Ideally a party whip should be a senior respected member with strong powers of persuasion and an ability to ‘wield the big stick’ if necessary. Where a whip is lacking these qualities, members are apt to take advantage and pay little attention.”
Westminster whips can make life “very difficult” for a rebellious MP. “On the day [of a vote], the whip should be in the Assembly chamber, ensuring that members’ involvement in debates runs smoothly.”
| Party | Chief Whip | Whip(s) |
| DUP (Assembly) | Peter Weir | Tom Buchanan Alastair Ross Michelle McIlveen |
| DUP (Commons) | William McCrea | – |
| Sinn Féin (Assembly) | Carál Ní Chuilín | – |
| Sinn Féin (Oireachtas) | Aengus Ó Snodaigh | – |
| UUP* | Fred Cobain | Billy Armstrong |
| SDLP* | Pat Ramsey | – |
| Alliance & United Community* | Kieran McCarthy | Anna Lo |
*Assembly only
