Gordon Brown promises to hand power back to parliament

Gordon Brown yesterday endorsed radical measures to put a revived parliament back at the centre of British political life, in a reform package designed to revive his flagging constitutional agenda and restore MPs' lost credibility.

The prime minister set out ideas to curb the power of whips and surrender to MPs important controls over the way Westminster business is conducted. In future, MPs would elect all select committees, take control of the Commons' business programme, and be given a greater chance to introduce legislation.

Brown has asked one of parliament's biggest advocates of reform, the Labour MP Tony Wright, to chair a quick all-party inquiry into parliament. It will examine:

• How parliament can be strengthened in its scrutiny of the government.

• How Westminster connects with the public.

• How control of parliament's daily business can be wrestled away from the government and its whips.

Wright, chair of the all-party public administration select committee, made the suggestion of a "new special committee of authoritative reform-minded MPs" in a private letter to Brown on 1 June, saying his ideas would not threaten the government's legislative programme, but "would help make a more vital Commons from which other reforms would flow".

A number of the measures under consideration have been championed in the Guardian's A New Politics debate.