Dealing with government defeats

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-45603158

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The Scottish government suffered a Holyrood defeat after opposition parties united to call for a "halt" to P1 assessments. How significant is it when the administration loses a vote?

Government defeats are a fact of life at Holyrood.

The design of Scotland's electoral system makes majorities unlikely, forcing MSPs to find common ground - or, occasionally, not.

The very first defeat of the Scottish Executive, as it was then known, came in March 2001.

Lib Dem members had tended to get away with minor rebellions, as their coalition with Labour had a comfortable majority.

However on this occasion, 14 Labour members were absent - some heading off for the party's conference in Inverness the next day - and the four Lib Dem rebellions left the vote, on a Conservative motion about fishing, tied at 55 each.

The casting vote of Presiding Officer Sir David Steel humbled the government, sparking a mini-crisis which included the resignation of Tavish Scott as the Lib Dem whip.

Perhaps fittingly given the present circumstances, it was John Swinney who got up to demand that the government "obey the will of parliament".

The man who 17 years later would face identical calls from opposition parties then said ministers "seem desperate to make statements when it suits them, but not when they have problems in parliament".

The current government, led by Nicola Sturgeon, has suffered a few defeats of its own this term.

The SNP are only a few seats short of a majority, so the margins in this parliament are tight. That means every vote counts - on one occasion they were saved from defeat when then Labour leader Kezia Dugdale failed to register a vote.

She insisted she had pressed the button to vote, but parliamentary authorities somewhat drily replied that there was no malfunction in the system. The motion on council tax reform, meanwhile, has largely been forgotten.

Government defeats generally have to be on broad issues, which can carry the support of parties as ideologically diverse as the Greens and the Conservatives.

This means they tend to be few and far between, but there have been some notable instances this term:

But only on one occasion have ministers really been forced to do something. That was when the opposition actually passed a bill repealing the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.

Every other time, including this week's education vote, they have lost out on strictly symbolic motions, which are not binding.

So why is this so important?

These votes demonstrate "the will of parliament". And the SNP often have cause to rely on the will of parliament themselves, in votes about Brexit or independence.

For example, after MSPs passed a motion calling for changes to Westminster's EU Withdrawal Bill, Mike Russell stated that the UK government "cannot pretend that no motion has been passed", adding that they "must respect the will of the parliament".

Citing the majority in favour of a second independence referendum, Nicola Sturgeon told her party's spring conference in 2017 that "the will of the democratically-elected parliament of Scotland...must and will prevail".

Of course, the SNP will point out that the EU Withdrawal Bill passed regardless, and that Theresa May insisted that "now is not the time" for indyref2.

If the UK government didn't respect the will of parliament on these constitutional matters, why should the Scottish government feel bound by it now?

The truth is that the stakes are higher for Ms Sturgeon when it comes to domestic votes at Holyrood.

After all, she has to lead a minority government here until 2021. She already faces a tough challenge in winning over opposition parties when it comes to the annual budget votes.

That's why most of the time, ministers do something to reflect the votes cast. They change course slightly - or even perform a U-turn.

For example after the defeats over enterprise boards, ministers announced that while there would still be a national agency, as planned, the regional ones could keep their own boards.

All eyes will now be on Mr Swinney to see how he responds to the latest defeat.