Steward of the Manor of Northstead

Crikey!

Boris Johnson made his final appearance in the House of Commons on the 4th June after announcing that he is standing down as an MP. His resignation – following his election as London Mayor last month - will trigger a byelection in his Henley constituency.

The timing of the announcement means that the byelection can take place on Thursday June 26, the Conservative party's preferred option. Johnson said that leaving Henley would be a "huge wrench" but that his new job at City Hall was "simply too big" for him to remain in parliament.

On Wednesday 4th June 2008 on the Treasury website the following strange announcement appeared;

"The Chancellor of the Exchequer has today appointed Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to be steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead."

It took Boris only 4 weeks and a day…!

Baffling as it is to outsiders (and insiders!) under long-standing British parliamentary convention; MPs cannot simply resign their seats but must accept an office of profit under the crown, becoming either the crown steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead or the steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.

The reason for this quixotic device to allow MP’s to resign is our old friend which embeds religious sectarianism at the heart of the British Constitution, The Act of the Williamnite Settlement.(http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/guy-fawkes-night.html)

British MPs are not permitted simply to resign their seat. Under the Act of Settlement, any Member of Parliament accepting an office of profit under the Crown must give up his or her seat. In the Act of Settlement, the King in return for sharing sovereignty with Parliament, did not want MP’s resigning in protest during the parliamentary term rather than vote on proposed laws or taxes. Therefore (other than dying!) an MP needed to apply to the Crown for an office of profit to enable him (it was not her until 1918 http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/10/first-female-member-of-parliament.html ) to resign.

This way the Crown kept control, it was heads King wins, tails King also wins!