The bigger parties in the Dutch parliament want action to curb the number of splinter parties which, they say, are complicating parliamentary procedures and cheating voters.

At the 2012 general election, there were 11 parties in parliament but there are now 16 after MPs left or were expelled from the party they were elected for.

The Liberal-Labour coalition now has 76 seats after two Labour MPs were thrown out and one VVD member stepped down. ‘What if we go on like this,’ D66 MP Gerard Schouw said during the debate. ‘We’ll end up with 25 parties and is that not too many?’

In the Dutch parliamentary system, MPs are elected on a personal basis, so if they leave the party, they are considered to have the right to stay in parliament and keep the seat.

They are also entitled to extra funding and debating time.

MPs have now asked the parliamentary ruling body to try to make the system more manageable.