Commons chamber set for radical revamp if Labour win ‘super-majority’

Radical plans to revamp part of the historic Commons Chamber are being drawn up to cope with a potential Labour ‘super-majority’, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

This could involve roping off some of the green benches traditionally used by the Opposition, reserving them for newly elected Labour MPs so they can fit in during debates.

The secret preparations follow predictions that Sir Keir Starmer‘s Labour could soar from just over 200 MPs to well over 400 in the new Parliament.

And the number of Tory MPs could, on some estimates, collapse from about 345 to fewer than 100.

One well-placed Commons source said: ‘It’s possible there could be so many Labour MPs that we let them spill over on to what are normally the Opposition benches.

Labour leader Keir Starmer on the campaign trail. The secret preparations follow predictions that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour could soar from just over 200 MPs to well over 400 in the new Parliament

Diagram of how the House of Commons could look with a Labour ‘super-majority’ 

‘We could use a red rope or red tape to mark out where Labour MPs would sit.’ The plan emerged just 24 hours after Boris Johnson raised the alarm over a so-called ‘Starmergeddon’ and urged people to vote Tory to prevent a Labour ‘elective dictatorship’.

And the Tories issued alerts over future Labour tax rises by warning that Sir Keir would hit people with a ‘holiday tax’ on flying to help fill a projected £38.5 billion ‘black hole’ in his spending plans.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said that while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had ruled out any so-called frequent flyer levy, the Labour manifesto was silent on the issue. Tory sources said that there were so many questions on Sir Keir’s tax plans that Labour will ‘need to reprint their manifesto at this rate’.

Labour hit back by accusing the Tories of making up ‘fantasy’ tax plans to avoid answering questions about their own proposals which would lead to a £4,800 hike in family mortgages.

The tax row came as:

• A new seat-by-seat poll by Survation suggested Labour would win 456 seats, the Tories just 72 seats, Lib Dems 56 and Reform as many as seven. 
• Nigel Farage prepared to launch Reform’s election manifesto, with expected policies tomorrow to include boosting tax breaks for married couples;
• Labour candidate Tan Dhesi was called a ‘Zionist devil’ while campaigning in Slough, with government adviser Lord Walney branding the abuse ‘disgusting’;
• Health spokesman Wes Streeting unveiled Labour’s plans to clear the NHS ‘cancer backlog’ in England amid claims that 700,000 patients will wait too long if the Tories are re-elected;
• The PM – attending a peace summit on Ukraine in Switzerland – warned Russia’s allies that they were ‘placing themselves on the side of the aggressor and on the wrong side of history’.  

A packed House of Commons in January 2023. By design, the Commons Chamber – opened in May 1852 – only has seating for 427 out of 650 MPs, with the rest forced to stand

Bomb damage in the Houses of Parliament during the Blitz in 1941. After it was destroyed by German bombs in the Second World War, there were calls for the Chamber to be enlarged by replacing its famous rectangular shape with a semi-circular design

By long tradition in the Commons Chamber, MPs from the governing party sit to the right of the Speaker’s Chair and the various Opposition parties sit to the left. But Commons sources said yesterday that after the election there could be so many Labour MPs – potentially more than the 418 after Tony Blair’s first landslide in 1997 – that space could be marked out on the Opposition benches to accommodate them 

Physically roping off benches would be controversial as it would appear to breach Commons convention that, technically, MPs can sit where they like. However, one source pointed out that it would not be the first time a Government party had spilled over on to Opposition benches, saying it happened in 1931 and 1935 after huge majorities for the ruling parties.

And by design, the Commons Chamber – opened in May 1852 – only has seating for 427 out of 650 MPs, with the rest forced to stand.

After it was destroyed by German bombs in the Second World War, there were calls for the Chamber to be enlarged by replacing its famous rectangular shape with a semi-circular design. However, it was rebuilt roughly to its original size and shape after Sir Winston Churchill led calls for it to retain ‘a sense of crowd and urgency’ on great occasions.

The great war-time prime minister argued: ‘If the House is big enough for all its members, nine-tenths of its debates will be conducted in the depressing atmosphere of an almost empty or half-empty Chamber.’

The new Chamber was used for the first time on October 26, 1950.

Last night, House of Commons officials stressed that it was up to MPs – not them – to decide who sat where on the green benches.