Motion to sit in private

Parliament voted on 11 July 2025 on a procedural motion to hold its session in private, away from public view. The motion was defeated by 58 votes to 1, with the overwhelming majority of participating MPs voting to keep the session open and publicly accessible. The result was never in serious doubt, with only a single MP supporting the move to close the proceedings.

The vote matters because open parliamentary proceedings are a cornerstone of democratic accountability. Sittings in private are exceptionally rare and are generally reserved for matters of national security or other highly sensitive concerns. By rejecting this motion so decisively, the House affirmed that the business before it on this date would remain visible to the public, to journalists, and to constituents who wished to follow how their representatives conduct affairs of state.

The politics of this vote were essentially non-partisan. No party voted in favour of the private session as a bloc, and the sole Aye vote came from among the Labour benches rather than from any organised opposition grouping. Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour and Co-operative members, and the Green Party all voted against. The very low total participation, with 59 MPs voting out of a House of 650, is itself typical of such procedural motions, which are generally treated as formalities to be swiftly disposed of. A nearly identical motion one week earlier, on 4 July 2025, produced the same outcome, with one Aye against 33 Noes, suggesting a pattern of isolated attempts to invoke this rarely used procedure during this parliamentary period.