Both the Tory and Lib Dem manifestoes promised to reform the House of Lords, as did the Coalition Agreement, but the gulf in enthusiasm between the two parties is enormous. For many Lib Dems, this is of course — as Nick Clegg put it in December — ‘one boat that urgently needs rocking’. For many Tories, it is something to be ambivalent about, or to oppose.
Which is why the politics around the ongoing Lords Reform Bill are likely to be so fraught. James has already written of how there are ‘more than 81 [Conservative] MPs prepared to vote against it.’ But today the Tory Cabinet Office minister Mark Harper challenges those potential rebels outright, with comments made to the Daily Mail:
‘Mr Harper — Nick Clegg’s deputy at the Cabinet Office — insisted that the Government intends to sweep away centuries of history by replacing it with an elected chamber. He warned fellow Conservatives, who are threatening to rebel against the plans, that the party committed to Lords reform in its election manifesto. He also revealed the Prime Minister is prepared to use the Parliament Act, which allows the Commons to overrule the Lords, to force changes into law even if the Lords refuses to agree.’
All of which suggests that No.10 has decided to weigh in heavily behind the Lib Dems in their struggle for elected peers. I imagine they see it, more than anything else, as a matter of keeping the coalition together. After all, Clegg & Co. are determined not to let political reform join the list of major losses, on their part, that already includes voting reform, tuition fees and Europe — and are prepared to get angry about it in the meantime.
But after Ebdon, and with Lib Dem opposition to the Health Bill threatening to boil over, I doubt those 81-plus Tory backbenchers will see it quite the same way. There is already much grumbling about the Lib Dems’ assertiveness this year. That will only get louder if Cameron and George Osborne don’t offer up some pacifying measures in next month’s Budget.
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