Dissident Labour MPs removed from Commons committee before vote (1)

Second Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation

in respect of the

Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 1387, No. 1387)

The Standing Committee voted by8 votes to 6 on Thursday 3rd July 2003 to implement the Statutory Instrument that transposes the Food Supplements Directive into UK law. However, if it were not for the Labour Party removing a number of their MPs from the committee, in the days leading up to the vote, the Government would certainly have lost the vote. One of the Labour MPs that was removed, Kate Hoey, turned up to the meeting despite her no longer being on the committee, and made a strong speech against the Food Supplements Regulations and its impact on the UK. Kate Hoey confirmed that she had been removed from the committee against her will because of her stated intention to vote against the legislation. It was apparent that this admission made Melanie Johnson (the Junior Health Minister, who was representing the Government) feel extremely uncomfortable.

It is notable that during the meeting not a single Member of the committee, or other members of the House who attended, spoke in favour of the regulations.

The measure will now technically be notified to the full House of Commons as having been considered by the Committee, but it is very unlikely that there will be a Division of the full House on the matter.

In the absence of a successful legal challenge, the EU Food Supplements Directive will become law removing up to three hundred existing nutrients and thousands of products from the UK market by August 2005.