Chief Whip

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The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.

[edit] United Kingdom

In British politics,when their party is in government the Chief Whip in the House of Commons is usually appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury so the incumbent (representing the whips in general) has a seat and a voice in Cabinet. The Government Chief Whip has an official residence at 9 Downing Street, formerly 12 Downing Street.

As shown in BBC television series Yes Minister and House of Cards, the Chief Whip can wield a large amount of power over those in their party, up to and including Cabinet Ministers, being seen to speak at all times with the voice of the Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher was famed for using her Chief Whip as a "cabinet enforcer" (there were rumours that her first chief whip, Michael Jopling was the closest cabinet colleague of Thatcher). Having said this, the whips are secretive. They are purely concerned with the discipline of their own party's Members of Parliament, and never appear on television or radio in their capacity as whip. Therefore the role of Chief Whip, especially, is considered a mysterious and intriguing one.

In the House of Commons, Jacqui Smith became the Government Chief Whip in May 2006, Patrick McLoughlin became the Official Opposition Chief Whip in 2005, and Paul Burstow was elected the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in March 2006.

The Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons is assisted by the Deputy Chief Whip, Whips, and Assistant Whips. In order to give them a salary for what is in essence a party office, the other senior government whips receive positions in HM Treasury, though they are not active in that department. The Deputy Chief Whip is Treasurer of HM (Her Majesty's) Household, the next two Whips are Comptroller of HM Household and Vice-Chamberlain of HM Household, and the remaining Whips are Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. (Assistant Whips, and, of course, Whips of other parties, generally do not receive such appointments.) The Opposition Chief Whip, like the Leader of the Opposition receives a stipend in addition to his parliamentary salary because his additional responsibilities will make him unable to hold down another job.

A similar arrangement exists for Whips in the House of Lords. The Government Chief Whip is usually appointed Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, while the Deputy Chief Whip is usually appointed Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard. Other Whips, who are fewer in number due to the decreased importance of party discipline in the Lords, are appointed Lords in Waiting if men and Baronesses in Waiting if women.

In the UK Parliament the importance of a vote is indicated by underlining of items on the "whip", which is the name of the letter the Chief Whip faxes to all the MPs in their party at the start of the week. This letter informs them of the schedule for the days ahead, and includes the sentence, "Your attendance is absolutely essential" next to each debate in which there will be a vote, underlined one, two or three times depending on the consequences that will be suffered if they don't turn up. The actual direction of their vote is communicated to them in the chamber by hand signals during the division when the time comes (usually after Division bell has been rung). Even though it determines the outcome of the votes crucially far more than the debate, neither these instructions, which are visible to everyone in the chamber, nor the "whip" letter at the start of the week, are recorded in Hansard, as they are considered an internal matter of the political party.

The consequences for defying the party whip depend on the circumstances and are usually negotiated with the party whip in advance. The party whip's job is to ensure the outcome of the vote, so the situation is different and more important for the party which holds the majority, because they can always win. They can make allowances for MPs who are away on important business, whose political circumstances require them to take a particular single issue very seriously, or if there is a mass revolt. Theoretically at least, expulsion from the party is automatically consequent from defying a three-line whip.

An example of this is in the case of John Major's government. Nine conservative Members of Parliament had their whips removed after voting against the government on its stance to the Maastricht Treaty. It was also the only time when MPs who are being whipped were co-operating with the opposite side's whips.

There are some cases in which whips are removed because an issue is a matter of conscience. These include adoption, religion and equal opportunities. The impact of a whip being imposed on a matter of conscience can be damaging for a party leader. A case like this includes that of Iain Duncan-Smith, who imposed a three line whip on equal rights for gay people. Several Conservative MPs voted against the official party line, and Duncan-Smith's authority was weakened.

Whips can often be brutal to Backbenchers to secure their vote. Protected by the privileges of the Palace of Westminster, the Whips will resort to a mixture of threats, blackmail and extortion to force an unpopular vote. A good whip shall know secrets and discriminating information about Members of Parliament. A whip should know major figures in an MP's local constituency party, the MP's agent. The husband or wife, the girlfriend or boyfriend. There have been cases where Members of Parliament were wheeled from far afield to vote for the government of crucial vote. Former MP Joe Ashton remembered a case from the dying days of James Callaghan's government:

"I remember the famous case of Leslie Spriggs, the then Member for St. Helens. We had a tied vote and he was brought to the House in an ambulance having suffered a severe heart attack. The two Whips went out to look in the ambulance and there was Leslie Spriggs laid there as though he was dead. I believe that John Stradling Thomas said to Joe Harper, "How do we know that he is alive?" So he leaned forward, turned the knob on the heart machine, the green light went around, and he said, "There, you've lost--it's 311." That is an absolutely true story. It is the sort of nonsense that used to happen. No one believes it, but it is true."

For a minister, the consequences for defying the party whip are absolute: they are dismissed from their job immediately, if they have not already resigned, and return to being a backbencher. Sometimes their votes in Parliament are called the "payroll vote", because of their higher salaries and the fact that they can be taken for granted. The consequences for a back-bencher can include the lack of future promotion to a cabinet post, a reduction of party campaigning effort in his constituency during the next election, deselection by his local party activists, or, in extreme circumstances, "withdrawal of the whip" and expulsion from the party.

The whips, although superficially dictatorial, do act as communicators between the backbenchers and the party leadership. Ultimately if backbenchers are unhappy with the leadership's position they can threaten to revolt during a vote and force the leadership to compromise.

The whip was first introduced to British politics by the Irish Parliamentary Party, under Charles Stewart Parnell.