Impeachment is not an effective weapon by which to hold our leaders to account, says Geoffrey Bindman QC
The resignation of a cabinet minister following allegations of misconduct is an unusual event. Does our constitution have the means to hold our leaders to account?. In the case of Maria Miller MP, resignation seemed to remove the pressure for any further action. Yet no one talked about impeachment. This is the historic process by which the House of Commons could procure the trial of a senior public servant or government minister for “high crimes and misdemeanours”. Is it still relevant?
The last impeachment in England, in 1805, was of Viscount Melville, William Pitt’s former Home Secretary Henry Dundas. He was acquitted of misappropriating public funds. But the great legal historian Holdsworth thought in the 20th century that impeachment “might still be a useful weapon in the armoury of the constitution because it embodies the sound principle that ministers and officials should be made criminally liable for corruption, gross negligence or other misfeasances in the
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