Labour mentions Big Society most in Parliament

19 Jul 2012 News

The term Big Society has been mentioned more by Labour MPs than Conservative MPs, according to data from charity website TheyWorkForYou.

(copyright Niko Retro)

The term Big Society has been mentioned more by Labour MPs than Conservative MPs, according to data from charity website TheyWorkForYou.

Today is the second birthday of Prime Minister David Cameron’s pet policy the Big Society, a contentious idea which has meant empowerment of citizens to take control of their lives and communities to some and government abdication of responsibility to others.

According to TheyWorkForYou which records all parliamentary debates online, the term Big Society has been mentioned 4,878 times in parliamentary debates by 1,266 MPs and Lords across all parties since 2005. 

Minister for civil society Nick Hurd has mentioned Big Society the most times – 162 compared to 21 by Prime Minister David Cameron. And overall, Labour MPs have brought up the term most in Parliament. It has been mentioned 1,335 times by Labour MPs compared to 1,271 for Tories. Liberal Democrat MPs have mentioned it a meagre 303 times.

An MP or Lord is most likely to have mentioned it just once in Parliament.

The latest mention of the Big Society in Parliament is by Labour peer Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, who questions whether the Big Society is over, and the very first mention of the concept, unsurprisingly, was by David Cameron.

(Scroll below to see the top 10 MPs talking about Big Society - best viewed in Firefox or Chrome browsers)