How does cross-party working take place in the House of Commons?

The UK parliament has traditional been portrayed as a highly tribal legislature, where the two main parties - since the second world war Labour and the Conservatives - wield significant power over their representatives. Since the 1970s, we have seen the decline of party cohesion and increases in dissent, areas that have attracted much scholarly attention. Less attention has been paid to the development of forums where individual members collaborate across party lines in the House of Commons. One of the most influential of these has been select committees, well studied by legislative scholars. More informal, ad hoc grouping of members advocating for or against changes in policy have been increasingly influential, but much less scrutinised - in the 2017-2019 parliament cross-party working dominated debate on the floor of the House. This PhD seeks to remedy this significant gap in scholarship by asking how does cross-party working take place in the House of Commons. It seeks to understand how new groups form, how they operate and the ways in which they succeed or fail in their aims. Using elite level interview and the parliamentary record, this project would develop a theory of cross-party working in the House of Commons, informing the legislative studies and political science disciplines, and the wider public and practitioner audience as to a fundamental part of the operation of parliament