What is going to happen to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act?

Nobody likes the law that paralysed parliament last year – but, asks John Rentoul, what to replace it with?

Will MPs allow Boris Johnson to decide the date of the next election? (AFP/Getty)

A joint committee of MPs and peers met for the first time last week. It has been set up, as required by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, to review the act and recommend whether to repeal or amend it. 

It seems a bit pointless, because Boris Johnson promised in last year’s Conservative manifesto to “get rid” of the act, because “it has led to paralysis at a time the country needed decisive action”. The Labour Party agreed; its manifesto said: “A Labour government will repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which has stifled democracy and propped up weak governments.”

Nobody likes the act, agreed by the coalition government as a sop to the Liberal Democrats, who feared that David Cameron would call a snap election when it suited him in the hope of ditching his ball and chain. It turned out that the two-thirds majority required for an early election could be overridden by a simple majority for a new act, as happened last year, but that the fixed-term act nevertheless encouraged deadlock and indecision.