This week, British lawmakers are taking a radical step forward by removing their seats from Westminster’s Great Hall, instead occupying their new seats in the Great Hall’s atrium. Prime Minister Theresa May has given both opposition Labour and the Liberal Democrats their newly located Westminster seats. Both parties held MPs in the chamber’s Great Hall at the opening of Parliament in 1749.
Now NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has been given the same opportunity to seat in the atrium. Conservatives want to know what Singh’s office can offer constituents that a Commons seat does not.
‘If you have one, you have two, as in a certain London restaurant. You can pick and choose from that menu. But if you don’t have it, then it’s bad to have it. Yet here’s a guy who hasn’t bothered to research it. You know, if I had a seat in that atrium, I’d be doing exactly the same thing. There’s really no point to that,’ Tory parliamentary leader Andrea Leadsom said.
If May really is turning London’s Parliament into a showcase for the digital age, Singh may be on to something.
‘If my guys and gals didn’t have one of those atria, then they would be all over social media like crazy,’ Singh said.
But, if I had a seat in that atrium, I’d be doing exactly the same thing,’ Singh said. There’s really no point to that. – JAGGETT SINGH on possibly taking a seat in London’s Parliament’s atrium @DPPage on the @NDP’s Scottish Declarations https://t.co/8pNE9VU1c8 — David Howarth (@david_howarth) October 11, 2018
Howarth is Labour’s social security spokesman. Singh’s trip to London on Sunday coincided with Labour’s hard-fought, 82-vote victory in the Glasgow Central constituency.
