David Cameron will be outflanked on parliamentary recall The limited recall measure that he was defending in the House of Commons yesterday would give a committee of parliamentarians the option of allowing voters to start a petition for a recall ballot if they found one of their colleagues guilty of a misdemeanour. But leaving the recall option in hands of Parliament itself rather than the public defeats the point; it is akin to the attempts to keep the expenses system in-house which were soon swept away by the tide of anger over the worst cases of abuse. Cameron's plan smacks of a cosy gentleman's club that looks after its own and will further erode public confidence in a system which is already at a low ebb. The Prime Minister is right to want to guard against changes that would open the door to a stream of destabilising and vexatious recall campaigns by challengers who would be better advised to hang on for their chance at the general election. Declining turn-outs suggest the public are sceptical about the electoral process as it is without being confronted with constant demands to sign up for a fresh ballot. But that danger would be removed by agreeing criteria for serious wrongdoing which would trigger the right of voters to start getting signatures for a by-election. The bar would have to be set carefully, but surely we should aim for a level of offence which would carry with it a high chance of being sacked if committed by people in other professions. Failing to do so will perpetuate the sense that there is one rule for the political class clinging to power by all means possible and another for everyone else. The options on powers to recall MPs have yet to get much scrutiny beyond Westminster, but they will. And when they do, the Prime Minister's defence of the parliamentary establishment risks leaving him marooned on the wrong side of the argument, vulnerable to the public's anger. It is hard to imagine that Cameron the opposition leader would have left himself exposed in this way. Perhaps prime ministers, encumbered by the weight of office, find it more difficult to move swiftly. Or perhaps this failing can be added to the list of areas in which the man who initially promised to create a new Conservative party and a new kind politics has shown himself to be lacking when sustained pressure is applied. Either way, the Prime Minister's vulnerability is Ed Miliband's opportunity. The Labour leader will take this chance to show he understands the depth of people's dissatisfaction with a political system that can seem woefully out of touch with people's lives. As that happens, David Cameron may come to rue discarding the mantle of parliamentary reformer that once served him so well. John Woodcock is the Labour MP for Barrow and Furness