What brings MPs back to parliament?
Updated on 21 July 2009
As MPs prepare to go on their summer recess, Channel 4 News online looks at the occasions on which parliament has been brought back early.
Today MPs leave parliament for an 82-day break, until 12 October.
The long summer recess is a standard feature of the parliamentary year, giving MPs time to catch up on constituency work, take a holiday, and prepare for and attend party conferences in September or October.
But earlier this year, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg called for MPs to cut their holiday short in order to sort out the mess over MPs' expenses. With the economy in a parlous state and a global swine flu pandemic looming, there seems to be no shortage of issues to keep politicians busy.
Under what circumstances have MPs returned to parliament early in the past?
Parliament can be recalled at a time when it is not sitting, for example, a weekend or during a recess, if the government makes a request to the Speaker, who must decided whether the recall is in the public interest. The Speaker cannot decide to recall the house without a request from a minister.
The House of Lords Speaker usually recalls the upper house at the same time as the House of Commons.
Parliament has been recalled 23 times since 1948 (see full list below), usually for one or two days in order to debate urgent matters.
Four events have brought MPs back unexpectedly since Labour came to power: the Omagh bomb, the September 11th terrorist attacks, the death of the Queen Mother and, most recently, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
In September 1998, parliament returned for two days in the wake of the Omagh bomb, Northern Ireland's worst-ever terrorist atrocity, to rush through emergency legislation with stricter anti-terrorism measures.
Parliament was then recalled three times in the wake of the September 11th attacks, for statements and debates on the international crisis. On the last of these, 8 October 2001, parliament met at 6pm to hear a statement from Tony Blair on the previous night's joint US and UK air strikes in Afghanistan.
On 3 April 2002, MPs met to pay tribute to the Queen Mother, who died on four days earlier.
MPs were last recalled seven years ago, in September 2002, to debate a 50-page dossier the government released on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.
Parliament has been recalled a number of other times since the second world war in times of national and international crisis. There have been three recalls of parliament for prorogation to finish business before a general election.
In May 1995, both houses of parliament were recalled for an emergency debate in the wake of the escalating conflict in Bosnia.
In September 1992, the house returned for two days. On the first, it debated a motion of "confidence" in the UK government's economic policy following Britain's suspension from the ERM; on the second it debated UN operations in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Somalia.
Other recalls under the last Conservative government concerned conflicts in Kuwait and the Falklands. In 1974, MPs came back to discuss Northern Ireland shortly after its first power-sharing body collapsed.
Full list: recalls of parliament since 1948
- 27-29 September 1949 Devaluation
- 12-19 September 1950 Korean War
- 4 October 1951 Prorogation - followed by dissolution (ending of parliament)
- 12-14 September 1956 Suez crisis; Cyprus
- 18 September 1959 Prorogation - followed by dissolution
- 17-23 October 1961 Berlin crisis
- 16 January 1968 Government spending cuts
- 26-27 August 1968 Czechoslovakia, Nigeria
- 26-29 May 1970 Prorogation - followed by dissolution
- 22-23 September 1971 Northern Ireland
- 9-10 January 1974 Fuel
- 3-4 June 1974 Northern Ireland
- 3 April 1982 (Saturday) Falkland Islands
- 14 April 1982 Falkland Islands
- 6-7 September 1990 Kuwait invasion
- 24-25 September 1992 Government economic policy; UN operations in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Somalia
- 31 May 1995 Bosnia
- 2-3 September 1998 Omagh Bomb: Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Bill
- 14 September and 8 October 2001 International terrorism and attacks in the USA
- 3 April 2002 Death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
- 24 September 2002 Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
