Lords reform makes its way into the Commons today, but it’s hardly a relief for the whips that after weeks of threats from the rebel camp, the legislation is finally being debated. With tales circulating the House that there are 110 Tory MPs prepared to defy the whip on the programme motion, this could be the first time the Government is defeated on its legislative programme.
The BBC’s Norman Smith tweeted this morning that the rebels were being told to vote against second reading rather than the programme motion if they were unhappy with the legislation. But even if, as Paul Goodman argues, not every rebel on that list of 110 actually sticks to the commitment they’ve given to the rebel whips, Labour only need 50 Conservative MPs to join them in voting down the programme motion. It’s unlikely the Government will be able to coax 60 MPs to change their mind before tomorrow afternoon’s vote.
Baroness Boothroyd gave a rousing speech to the troops on the Today programme:
‘And I say to those people who are defying the whip: good luck to you, you’re doing the right thing by your constituents, by your country and by Parliament, and forget about the blackmailing of the party politics that is going on at the present time.’
What will be interesting is how rebels who hold PPS jobs choose to resign. Conor Burns – who seems rather keen to be the second PPS to Owen Paterson to resign on an issue his party clashes with the Liberal Democrats over, whether it be Lords reform or Europe, which he has also been pressuring the Prime Minister on – may wait to be sacked in the same way that his predecessor Stewart Jackson was when he defied the whip in the backbench rebellion over Europe last year. Or he might use the debate today or tomorrow to resign in the Chamber. Either way, expect speeches that run on a similar theme to the EU referendum debate, with previously fiercely loyal MPs claiming they’ve been pushed into rebelling.
The Liberal Democrats continued to push the agenda over the weekend. Vince Cable sounded exasperated on the World this Weekend on Radio 4 when he said:
‘[The Prime Minister has] already made it very clear politically that he’s fully behind this, they know that it was in their election manifesto, they’re as committed to it as we are, as indeed are the Labour party and if the leadership in the three major parties can’t get this through in a business-like way then there’s something seriously wrong.’
The starkest warning comes from an unnamed Lib Dem source in a number of the newspapers. This is the warning in the Guardian: ‘A defeat would be unprecedented because the Coalition has not been defeated before. It would take us into unchartered territory.’ The source suggests that Nick Clegg has stuck to his side of the deal by supporting NHS and welfare reform and that this is a ‘test’ of David Cameron’s leadership. Mentioning those key reforms is ominous: the Coalition could find far more than the boundary review under threat if this legislation gets stuck.
Comments