Debates about the future of the Palace of Westminster have focused on whether MPs can keep sitting on the green benches in the Commons but, as Cherry Miller and Alexandra Meakin explain, a meeting of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly has highlighted the broader use of the building, and its role in defining an image of the UK to the rest of the world.
On 4–5 December, the UK parliament hosted the fourth meeting of the EU–UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, a body set up to oversee implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. A delegation of 35 MEPs (and staff) visited the UK parliament, meeting with 21 MPs and 14 peers to discuss ‘the state of play within the Partnership Council’; a recommendation on mobility of people; breakout groups on data protection, fisheries, and citizens’ rights; artificial intelligence and climate change. Innumerable side meetings were also held on the parliamentary estate and there was a reception in Speaker’s House. In the previous visit to Westminster, in November 2022, visiting delegates had the option of attending a tour of the parliamentary estate.
The UK Parliamentary Partnership meets in the UK parliament for prestige, minimising costs and maximising attendance (of the UK delegation). The meeting has twice been held in Committee Room 14, a historic setting of the 1922 committee. At the 4 December meeting, co-chair Oliver Heald MP apologised to attendees in his opening remarks:
‘I would like to give you a warm welcome, although this room is not as warm as we would like. We have asked that the windows be closed but they can’t do it tonight because it requires a ladder and all sorts of equipment, but they are bringing an extra heater and I do apologise. It’s a nice historic building, but there is that problem, that it’s a bit cold’.
(PPA, 04/12/23)
Many parliamentarians and staff sat in coats, scarfs (and gloves, for some). Parliamentary staff deftly worked to ameliorate this situation, locating and wheeling in portable heaters. Despite the cool temperature, the mood in the televised plenary was, in general, convivial. One MEP joked there was a need to ‘put another 50p in the meter’ and metaphors about the freezing and thawing of EU–UK relations abounded. However, this raises broader issues about parliamentary diplomacy and Restoration and Renewal, as discussed below.
Warm welcomes? The UK’s parliamentary diplomacy
The UK is considering ways to strengthen its international relationships and the Westminster parliament may play a key role in this. Parliamentary diplomacy is an overlooked parliamentary activity in (supra)national parliaments. Parliaments are sites of both national and international negotiation, information seeking, and communication. Parliamentary diplomacy can be interparliamentary, intra-parliamentary and extra-parliamentary (with civil society, or executive actors, for example).
The discussion on parliamentary diplomacy has coincided with a parallel discussion about the uses and meanings of parliamentary spaces. However, an overlooked dimension has been what is required from our spaces for parliamentary diplomacy to be effective. Considerations might include, but are not limited to: room sizes to host larger delegations and civil society; interpretation infrastructure; access to requisite facilities for those with caring responsibilities, worship rooms, and the accessibility of the room.
Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster
While MEPs might have been surprised by the conditions that greeted them in Westminster, those working in the Palace on a regular basis have become accustomed to a building that is struggling with ageing infrastructure hidden behind the Pugin wallpaper and under the green and red carpets. The heating system, reliant on seven miles of corroding steam pipes, faces regular failures, compounded by the draughts from the 3,800 original bronze windows. The PPA delegates could count themselves lucky if they avoided the mice, sewage leaks, and minor fires which staff battle with on a regular basis.
The deteriorating state of the Palace has been the subject of years of debate, with agreement reached in 2018 for parliamentarians to move out to allow a major renovation, known as the Restoration and Renewal programme, to take place. This decision has since been reversed, with MPs pushing instead for repairs to take place while they continue to meet in the Commons chamber; an approach which could turn the Palace of Westminster into a building site until the end of the century. Future meetings of the PPA, and all the other elements of international diplomacy, such as delegations, receptions, and even addresses to both chambers by heads of state, may have to take place while cables are dug up and floorboards ripped out, with attendees walking through polytunnels to avoid asbestos. While early plans were made for alternate locations for ceremonial events (such as Lying-in-State) if parliament was meeting in a temporary location, parliamentary diplomacy has rarely been part of discussions around the future of the Palace.
In past battles over the Restoration and Renewal programme, some MPs argued against moving out of the Palace on the basis that they could not be expected to ‘negotiat[e] with Europe from a portacabin’ or temporary building. As a result, we can expect, instead, more instances of negotiating with Europe while shivering in a crumbling Victorian Palace.
Looking ahead
The above discussion raises broader questions about parliamentary buildings and parliamentary diplomacy. If the Restoration and Renewal programme were to go ahead, with the Palace of Westminster rebuilt, how should we design it for parliamentary diplomacy? What space would be needed in a post-Brexit environment for meetings of the PPA or scrutinising the implementation of trade agreements? More broadly, how does the space for parliamentary diplomacy affect the conduct of delegates and indeed the outcome of discussions? What can we learn from international best practice? Finally, on a side note, even though the PPA is a statutory body between the UK parliament and the European Parliament, it could potentially rotate to the other parliaments of the UK as a meeting place: what space can be used or created in Holyrood, Cardiff Bay, and Stormont to boost UK parliamentary diplomacy?
There may of course be resistance to our overall intervention, for example around concerns of ‘political tourism’ – that is, where incentives to travel outweigh the value added of in-person meetings, especially given the development of online parliamentary meetings. The December meeting of the PPA shows, however, that discussions around the future of the Palace of Westminster need to include parliamentary spaces — and consideration of the image the UK wants to project onto the global stage.
About the authors
Dr Cherry Miller is an Academy Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Her current research, funded by the Research Council of Finland, GenParlDip, explores EU27-UK parliamentary diplomacy, through a gender lens.
Dr Alexandra Meakin is a Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Leeds. She researches the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster, parliamentary governance, and legislative buildings.
Featured image: Newly cleaned stone angel and scaffolding: Elizabeth Tower (CC BY-NC 2.0) by UK Parliament.