What The Hell Is The ‘Steward And Bailiff Of The Three Hundreds Of Chiltern’?

Boris Johnson has formally resigned as an MP as chancellor Jeremy Hunt appointed him to be Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern.

It prompts the obvious question: what the hell are they going on about?

British parliament likes nothing more than an archaic process that leaves the British public baffled – and they don’t come much more archaic and baffling than handing a departing MP a momentary office so that they can give up their seat.

How have we got here?

On Friday, former prime minister Johnson rocked British politics by announcing he was quitting parliament amid a row with his successor Rishi Sunak over his House of Lords nominations.

The fall-out has since descended into a public slanging match over Johnson allies including Nadine Dorries missing out on peerages.

But Johnson only officially “resigned” on Monday after taking an “office of profit under the Crown” … which is where it starts to get historic. 

So what is the Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern?

The Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern in Buckinghamshire is a historical position – established in the 17th century – which in modern times has been used to facilitate the resignations of MPs.

Elected MPs are unable to resign and must become disqualified if they wish to leave the Commons before the end of the parliament.

One way to do it is to be appointed to a paid office of the Crown – which does the work of automatically disqualifying them from holding a seat in the Commons.

Another post – in Yorkshire’s Manor of Northstead – performs the same role. That title has also just been given to Nigel Adams, another Tory MP who is quitting parliament amid the honours furore.

The titles alternate, so Dorries, who is also getting out of politics, will presumably get the Manor of Northstead gig if she formally applies to the Treasury next (Adams got in there before Johnson).

To be clear, neither post comes with any payment or responsibilities.

As Erskine May, the authoritative guide to parliamentary procedure, puts it: “These offices are today purely nominal and are ordinarily given by the chancellor of the exchequer to any member who applies for them or who otherwise indicates to the chancellor an intention to retire.

“Each office is retained only until the chancellor appoints another member who wishes to retire, or until the holder applies for release from it.”

So when is his by-election?

While Johnson has gone, we don’t yet know when the fight for his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency will take place. 

A by-election is triggered when the chief whip of the party holding the vacant seat issues a writ.

A new writ is usually issued within three months of the vacancy being made. The vote has to take place between 21 and 27 working days from this point.

What do people think?

So is it a harmless curiosity or an anachronism that needs to be abolished? To be charitable, you could argue the process is symbolic of the separation between parliament and the monarchy. But they weren’t quite seeing it that way on social media …