The concessions that David Cameron has reportedly offered the Conservative backbench on Lords reform are really not sufficient to keep them out of the no lobbies. Switching from a salary to a daily attendance allowance, which would keep peers’ earnings below £60,000 in most cases, is hardly going to set the benches alight. The reason for this is mainly that Tory MPs are opposing Lords reform as much for reasons of principle as they are for personal reasons. This is a deeply personal row with the Lib Dems that was a bit awkward and grumpy a month or so ago, but has turned to full-blooded revenge over the party’s refusal to support Jeremy Hunt in the Commons.
Benedict Brogan’s report today that Number 10 is suggesting to MPs that rebelling on this will not damage their careers sent the whips into a spin. Backbench Tory MPs who had planned to support the legislation were furious, and the line at this today’s lobby briefing was that it is “a Government bill and will be whipped appropriately. If necessary we will use the Parliament Act”. The Government also needs this to clear the Commons before the summer is out so that the threat of no promotion in the autumn reshuffle can be held over wavering backbenchers.
Meanwhile Ed Miliband is imposing a three-line whip on his party to vote the Bill through at second reading, but oppose the guillotine. The Labour leader is insisting that this is not an attempt to wreck the Bill, and wrote a blog on the subject this afternoon:
‘We need the legislative time to improve this Bill. Therefore, we will vote for the Second Reading of this Bill and oppose the proposed timetable which effectively guillotines debate. There will be some who say this is Labour’s attempt to wreck the Bill and allow opponents to suffocate it through deliberate delay so the reform never even reaches the House of Lords. They are wrong. I do not want the reform of the House of Lords to be stuck in the House of Commons. I want a good reform Bill to get out of the Commons and into the Lords so it can be properly discussed in both Houses.’
Its a little difficult to follow Miliband’s argument that his position on the procedural motion will not leave the Bill languishing in the Commons. This is partly because the leader is trying to please two masters. On the one hand, he has a personal commitment to reform, but on the other he has a significant quotient of MPs in his party who would do anything other than give Nick Clegg an easy ride. It’s the same as his support for the Alternative Vote, which he juggled with refusing to share a platform with Clegg during the referendum campaign. And everyone knows how well that worked out for the Labour leader’s personal commitment to reform…
Whether or not Miliband succeeds on the guillotine motion, there are plenty of long, awkward nights in the Commons ahead of the Coalition. But they won’t be anything like as long and awkward as the nights that the Bill is going to spend in the House of Lords.
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