Politics put on hold for period of mourning

When Boris Johnson received notification from Buckingham Palace of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh while working at 10 Downing Street on Friday, one of his first acts was to pick up the phone and call his rival for power Sir Keir Starmer.

The death of a much loved and respected national figure like Prince Philip presents a dilemma for politicians, but it is a dilemma that few in the mainstream parties have difficulty in resolving.

No matter what the heated debates underway or the election battles raging, all but a handful recognise instantly that normal political hostilities are not appropriate at a time of national mourning. Even if they personally want to remain in the fray, there is a strong awareness that voters will punish anyone failing to show the necessary respect.

So as the flags over Downing Street and the Palace of Westminster were being lowered to half-mast, Johnson and Starmer were quick to agree that campaigning for local elections in England on 6 May would be suspended, while their counterparts in Scotland and Wales sent out the same message in relation to the same day’s ballots for the devolved parliaments.

Orders were issued to party representatives at all levels that there were to be no speeches, visits, interviews or press conferences and no announcements of new policies. Party press offices were instructed not to put out proactive statements, though they continue to respond to journalists’ questions – even if mostly with a “no comment”. Black ties and armbands will be much on display over the coming days.

Meanwhile, the government has gone into an eight-day period of silence known as “purdah”, normally only occurring in the run-up to a general election.

No new laws will be passed, no government announcements will be made and no ministers will give interviews or tweet about policy unless it is specifically to give public health guidance relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. The familiar round of coronavirus press conferences from 10 Downing Street will be paused.

The House of Commons will be recalled a day early after its Easter recess at 2.30pm on Monday for seven and a half hours of tributes from MPs led by Mr Johnson and Sir Keir. And the Scottish parliament and Welsh senedd will return for a single day, after breaking up for what had been intended to be the last time ahead of the elections.

In Scotland, campaigning is due to resume immediately after Monday’s Holyrood session, largely because of the prospect of a live televised leaders’ debate on STV the following day pitting Nicola Sturgeon against Tory rival Douglas Ross, Labour’s Anas Sarwar, Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie and Green Patrick Harvie. But elsewhere, it is not yet clear how long campaigning will be put on hold.

Proceedings in the Commons will resume as scheduled at 11.30am on Tuesday with questions to health secretary Matt Hancock, while Johnson will face MPs for his regular weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, though exchanges are expected to be subdued with mourning still underway.

Few have objected to the interruption of political sparring. One Labour MSP, Neil Findlay, called for the Scottish Parliament to take advantage of its unexpected return to Holyrood to fit in a grilling of Sturgeon over her health secretary’s recent admission of mistakes over the handing of the pandemic.

Findlay insisted that a brief break would ensure his proposed debate would not impinge on the respect being shown to the duke. But there was little sign of other parliamentarians joining his call, while the Labour leadership seemed inclined to turn a blind eye and opposing parties did not even want to break their silence to criticise him.

It is far from the first time that politics has been put on one side in response to a tragic death.

In the run-up to the EU referendum of 2016, campaigning was halted following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, as Prime Minister David Cameron stood side by side with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to lay wreaths at the site of her killing in Birstall, near Leeds.

And in 1997, campaigning for referendums on the creation of national assemblies in Scotland and Wales was suspended in response to the death of Diana Princess of Wales in Paris.

With the votes due to take place less than three weeks after Diana’s death on 31 August, then-opposition leader William Hague is understood to have asked Tony Blair to delay the referendums, but this would have required legislation in parliament and they went ahead as planned. 

This time, the respite from politics will be brief. With the largest electoral moment for years outside a general election looming in less than a month’s time, it will not be long before our representatives are back at one another’s throats.