Lisa Nandy joins calls for virtual parliament to be reinstated
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Over the past few weeks, MPs had been allowed to vote online and speak remotely via video conference app Zoom.
But the procedure was brought to an end on Tuesday, June 2 after MPs voted down the idea in favour of a return to physical voting. MPs were pictured lining up in snaking queues around the Palace of Westminster, as they waited to enter the House of Commons.
The vote was won by 261 votes to 163, a majority of 98.
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Hide AdOpposition MPs renewed calls for the virtual voting to be reinstated, with Labour's shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy saying "reckless doesn't even begin to describe" the scrapping of the system a day earlier.
Ministers are likely to face further questions over their decision to end virtual voting in the Commons after Business Secretary Alok Sharma, who appeared visibly ill while in the chamber on Wednesday, was tested for Covid-19.
After Commons authorities undertook a deep-clean, a spokeswoman for the MP said he would self-isolate after he "began feeling unwell" while delivering the second reading of the Corporate Governance and Insolvency Bill.
Ms Nandy responded to the news in a tweet, saying: "This is just awful. The government stopped MPs from working from home and asked us to return to a building where social distancing is impossible. MPs are travelling home to every part of the country tonight. Reckless doesn’t even begin to describe it."
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