ABSTRACT
Parliamentary business is often unpredictable and, in the Lords especially, sittings and occasionally votes can run late into the night. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 passed during the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government curtailed the Prime Minister’s ability to use prerogative powers to dissolve Parliament. The European question was not politically salient until the Coalition Government took office. It divided the Conservative Party, however, and from 2011 onwards became a source of frequent debate within the House of Commons, where angry Tory backbenchers used ‘Europe’ as the way to voice their wider opposition to the Coalition and Cameron’s leadership. The lack of time posed a constant challenge for Government and Parliament. Brexit had not gone away. In autumn 2020 numerous pieces of Brexit-related legislation arrived in Parliament, all requiring detailed scrutiny. The European Question and its implications remained alive and well.
