The Green Party has launched a campaign to crowdsource £30,000 for a legal challenge to give MPs the right to job-share. The appeal comes after two Green Party members were prevented from standing as job-share candidates in this year’s general election.
Green Party members Sarah Cope and Clare Phipps’ request for joint candidacy was rejected by the Electoral Returning Officer at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council on the grounds of a ban on job-shares for MPs.
The pair is now seeking to launch a legal challenge as part of the #UnlockTheHouse campaign to make parliament more representative.
Neither Cope nor Phipps would be able to serve as a full-time MP. Cope is the main carer for two young children, and Phipps suffers from a disability which would prevent her from working full-time.
In 2010 Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, used her first speech as Green Party leader to call for the post of Member of Parliament to be opened up to job-shares to encourage more women MPs and make Westminster politics more accessible to ordinary people.
Cope, chair of Green Party Women, the women's sub-group within the Green Party, said:
"Allowing job-share MPs would open up parliament to a much more diverse group of people, including more women, those with childcare and other caring responsibilities and those with disabilities.
"At a time when people are disenchanted with 'business as usual' politics, it is an idea that could re-engage people. If voters have the chance to vote for people who are more like them, and who can relate to issues within their lives such as living with disabilities, or coping with caring responsibilities, they may be more likely to engage with the democratic process."
Phipps is researching gender and health as part of a part-time PhD and job-shares a position on the Green Party Executive. Since 2009 she has suffered from a disability known as idiopathic hypersomnia, a chronic condition which means she sleeps for around 12 hours a day.
Phipps said:
"It is now almost 100 years since the first woman was elected to the House of Commons yet only 29% of MPs in the new parliament are women. At this rate of progress, a girl born today will be drawing her pension before she has an equal say in the government of her country.
"It's time our government reflected the people it is representing. Allowing job-share MPs is just one way we can change politics for the better."
Phipps and Cope argue that preventing their joint candidature contravenes their human rights, including the right to respect for their private and family lives and the requirement of respect for rights and freedoms without discrimination on the grounds of disability.