Demand 'growing' for English parliament

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The United Kingdom is in a "constitutional muddle" and demand is growing for an English parliament, a Labour MP has said.

Speaking ahead of a Westminster Hall debate on parliamentary representation in England, Derek Wyatt told ePolitix.com that four lower houses of equal powers should be established in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

A new upper house of representatives should be set up with responsibility for issues such as the environment and foreign policy, the Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP said.

He said: "We've devolved to Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, but we've not devolved the same powers to the one assembly and two parliaments. And by default, we have not given anything to England.

"We tried to do elected regional assemblies and they failed; now we've got unelected regional development agencies and we've still got some form of regional assembly - unelected. So the largest economic unit in Britain has no democratic representation."

Wyatt, who is the parliamentary aide to culture minister Margaret Hodge, said that England was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Barnett formula which allocates funding across the United Kingdom.

"English people are tired really of a Barnett formula that spends more money in the [other] three countries and doesn't give them the same rights and the same responsibilities and the same treatment," he said.

"I think it's time we stopped and thought about what we're doing."

He added that demand for an English parliament will grow within the next five years to 10 years.

"People are tired of hearing that Scotland's got better facilities when the Barnett formula gives them more per head for education, for instance, than in Kent where I live," he said.