LONDON — British lawmakers will leave Parliament on Friday for the last time before elections are held in six weeks. Some will never return: Members of Parliament who retire or lose their seats on July 4 face an abrupt readjustment to life outside politics.
After a flurry of last-minute legislation, Parliament will be prorogued, or formally suspended, in a hat-doffing ceremony, lords in ermine-trimmed robes and orders in Norman French.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s surprise decision to call a summer election means some key laws will have to be abandoned, including his flagship plan to ban the sale of tobacco to future generations.
On the second full day of campaigning, Sunak and his main opponent, Labor Party leader Keir Starmer, have already traveled hundreds of miles across the United Kingdom on carefully organized visits to businesses and communities. Sunak will visit Northern Ireland and central England on Friday, while Starmer will visit Scotland and north-west England.
The Labor Party is the heavy favorite to win the election after moving from the left to the political center under Starmer, its leader since 2020.
The party received a reminder of its recent past on Friday, when Starmer’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn said he would run for Parliament as an independent against the Labor candidate. Starmer suspended Corbyn and banned him from running for the Labor Party again after the former leader accused his opponents of exaggerating the problem of antisemitism in the party.
Starmer apologized for antisemitism, a move welcomed by many Jewish and other Labor members. But Corbyn’s supporters said he was being smeared because of his long-standing support for the Palestinian cause.
The Labor Party has not yet chosen its candidate to run in the inner London seat of Islington North, which Corbyn has represented since 1983.
“I am here to represent the people of Islington North based on exactly the same principles that I have stood for all my life: social justice, human rights and peace,” Corbyn said.
Parliament is dissolved for elections with a tradition-steeped ceremony in which lawmakers from the House of Commons are summoned to the House of Lords on behalf of King Charles III by an official known as Black Rod. This is followed by a round of bowing and raising of caps, before an official reads the title of each bill being passed with a shout of “le roy le veult” (“the king wants it” in Norman French). .
Parliament will be officially dissolved next week, 25 business days before election day. It will not meet again until after the election, when the new members will be sworn in.
The new government, whether Labor or Conservative, will announce its legislative program at another occasion of pomp and ceremony, the State Opening of Parliament on 17 July.
Members of the House of Commons and House of Lords were racing on Friday to pass final laws on the final day of a Parliament that began after the previous national election in December 2019, a process known as “whitewashing.” .
One of the most important is a law that will overturn the convictions of hundreds of Post Office branch managers who were prosecuted for theft or fraud because a faulty computer system known as Horizon showed money was missing. The prosecutions and years-long cover-up by Post Office bosses have been called one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in UK history.
The Post Office Crimes (Horizon System) Bill was passed by Parliament on Thursday evening and will become law after receiving the formality of royal consent from King Charles III on Friday.
Victims of a contaminated blood scandal in which thousands of people were infected with HIV and hepatitis from contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s will be compensated after Parliament passes the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
A bill reforming property law in England and Wales, giving more rights to people who own leasehold properties, where the freehold of the building is owned by someone else, is also expected to be put on the statute book.
One of Sunak’s signature policies – a plan to create a “smoke-free generation” by banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 2008 – is among the bills that have missed their deadline. .
The new government could reintroduce it if the Conservatives win the election. The Labor Party supports the idea in principle and could also introduce a similar bill if it comes to power.
Also falling by the wayside is a law that would prohibit landlords from evicting tenants without giving a reason.
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