IN March 1979, there was a serious discussion about driving the dying Labour MP for Batley and Morley some 200 miles from Yorkshire to the House of…
The context was the now-famous motion of no confidence which had been lodged in Jim Callaghan’s government after the first Scottish devolution referendum crashed into the qualified majority rules which had been inserted into the first Scotland Act.
Although physically unfit to join his Labour colleagues in the division lobby, House of Commons arcana meant that Broughton’s vote of confidence in the government would still be counted – so long as he arrived bodily and alive within the “precincts” of the Palace of With Broughton’s horizontal support, this would have left the government and opposition eeksie-peeksie with 311 all, and as the Speakers cast their vote in favour of the status quo in the case of a tie, Callaghan’s government would have survived – at least for a while.
The independent republican MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Frank Maguire turned up in London causing considerable excitement, as his would-be Labour handlers tried to persuade him away from his intention to “abstain in person” on the motion. A harder man might have taken Broughton up on his offer and reckoned with his conscience later about the ethics of doing this to a dying man. But having a conscience has consequences. There was every reason for Labour politicians to feel squeamish about breaking bread with Enoch Powell.
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