It has come to my attention that Ysolt is a dupe account of JPKC, meaning that for the past two and a half months, JPKC has had a duplicate account in the TSR Liberal Democrat Party.

This is a clear breach of MHoC rules which state under the Guidance document that “Members are only allowed to be in one party, unless both Party Leaders and the Speaker agree.” The use of a duplicate account to secretly gain access to a second party is dishonourable and makes a mockery of the rules we agree to abide by.

I’ve looked through JPKC’s posts in the Socialist party and he has not divulged Lib Dem discussions suggesting that this has been done for personal, not party advantage and I am confident that had the Socialist leadership been aware of JPKC’s dupe, they would have reported it to me.

I have been a member of the TSR Model House of Commons for over 4 years and in all that time, this is the worst case of espionage that we have ever had. Over the past 2 and half months, JPKC has been able to influence both Socialist and Liberal Democrat policy and has had a hugely unfair advantage when playing politics and interacting with other members in the MHoC. One can only imagine how much greater that advantage would have been if this had continued into the next election and the following coalition negotiations.

Ysolt briefly served as a proxy MP for the Liberal Democrats, meaning that on two bills, (V478 - British Olympic Team Renaming Bill and V468 - Restrictions of Trade Unions Activity Bill), JPKC casted two votes.

Unlike the MHoC Newspaper incident, I consider this to be a very grave breach of the rules of the House by both the letter and the spirit and I believe that such unprecedented rule breaking requires an unprecedented response.

Neither the Constitution nor Guidance Document suggest a course of action where one member has been found to be in more than one party without permission and so the sanctions I have applied reflect the seriousness and length of the rule-breaking and are what I feel is necessary to fulfil the most fundamental role of Speaker – to uphold and enforce the rules of this House.

The following sanctions have been applied, effective immediately:

JPKC is no longer an MP in the TSR Model House of Commons.

JPKC is now banned from holding an MP position for the rest of this session of Parliament.

I would also appeal to party leaders for their cooperation in ensuring JPKC is not permitted into any parties for the rest of this session of Parliament.

These sanctions are necessary to send out a message that the usage of duplicate accounts to access private party forums is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. For this game to work at all, TSR parties must feel confident that they are able to discuss what they like in private. Members who cannot respect the privacy of party sub-forums should have no place in any party.

I hope I have the support of the House in taking the actions that I have. The message that this conduct is not on will have gone to the whole House and I hope that members of the Liberal Democrat party and the wider House will again feel comfortable in debating freely and candidly in the privacy of their sub-forums.