Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 1

MPs voted 344 to 172 on 19 November 2024 to reject a Lords amendment that would have inserted a purpose clause into the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill. The amendment, passed in the House of Lords, would have established the improvement of passenger railway services as the Bill's primary purpose and required ministers to test their decisions against that standard. The Commons voted to disagree with it, meaning the purpose clause was removed from the final legislation. The Bill transfers the operation of franchised passenger rail services from private operators to public sector companies as existing franchise agreements expire or are terminated. By rejecting the Lords amendment, Parliament left the legislation without an explicit statutory commitment to passenger improvement as its guiding principle. The government argued such a clause was unnecessary given the Bill's broader aim and potentially counterproductive; critics argued it removed an accountability mechanism that would have required ministers to demonstrate that public ownership decisions were benefiting passengers. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 293 Labour MPs and all 33 Labour and Co-operative MPs voted with the government to reject the amendment, joined by the eight SNP members and four Green MPs. All 94 Conservatives and all 65 Liberal Democrats voted against the government's position, as did all five Reform UK MPs and four Democratic Unionists, supporting retention of the Lords amendment. No notable cross-party rebellions were recorded. The result echoed the pattern from earlier divisions on the Bill in September 2024, when opposition amendments at committee stage were defeated by similar margins.