Lord Lisvane, better known as Sir Robert Rogers, thinks the talk of a constitutional crisis over tax credits is overblown. Having served in the House of Commons for over 40 years, most recently as Commons’ Clerk until he retired last year, he is one of the few people who fully understands the relationship between the Lords and the Commons. Speaking to Coffee House, Lisvane explains this is business as usual:
‘I think there has been a great deal of hyperbole. The regulations that the Lords considered on Monday were required to be laid before the Lords as well as the Commons under Tax Credits Act 2002 and the Lords considered them. They came to a view the government didn’t like that much’.
Lisvane also says that neither the Lords nor the Commons have acted inappropriately over cutting tax credits and the softened approached — hinted at by the Chancellor — will deliver a good result for all concerned:
‘I think the government will need to consider the events of Monday and the Chancellor has indicated that he’s going to often his proposals and perhaps introduce transitional arrangements. If that happens then I think that will meet and assuage a lot public concern, concern in the Lords but also, and pretty highly relevantly, concern amongst his own Conservative backbenchers in the Commons.’
One of the mooted threats from the government has been to ‘flood’ the House of Lords with new Tory peers, giving the government a majority to pass legislation — something Lisvane does not approve of:
‘I think that would be a huge overreaction and I think the government would get a lot more criticism than they would get long term political advantage. I think tempers and emotions have been running high over the last few days and I think the most sensible thing is just to give a little time for things to settle down and people will see it in proportion.’
The use of statutory instruments to introduce the tax credit cuts has been much discussed over the past few days. Lisvane says that it is ‘regrettable’ they are being used in place of a bill:
‘One regrettable trend in the use of statutory instrument is put in them major issue of policy and principle, which really ought to be on he face of the bill and so subject to the scrutiny that a bill gets and not left subsequent regulations by statutory instruments
You can watch the full video interview with Lord Lisvane above.
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