How will SNP MPs operate in Parliament?

Most of the new SNP MPs celebrated their party’s amazing result in the general election today with a photo call outside Parliament. They certainly looked an impressive bloc of parliamentarians, illustrating just how different this Parliament will look and feel from the last.

But one of the interesting questions is how much freedom will these new MPs have to pursue their own interests, or whether they will be expected to operate as a bloc, and not outside the bloc. Many backbench MPs take up personal campaigns on a matter affecting constituents, or a small issue where they hope they can effect a change in the law. Some do this when it is not their party’s policy, in the hope that they can change the party too.

But the SNP pitch in the election was that the more MPs it had sitting on the seats in the House of Commons, the stronger its voice.