House of Lords Reform Bill

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Monday 3rd September 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Since we are trading quotes, I remind the hon. Lady that she—[Interruption.] I will answer the question. She said on her website that we should not be wasting our time on constitutional reform—of almost any description, I think—that is not going to improve the life of a single person in the United Kingdom. I have the transcript of the meeting of the Select Committee in April this year. As she knows, I also said in my exchange with her that we were

“trying to press forward”

on all the issues in our constitutional and political reform package, and that

“I think we are successfully doing so—in keeping with the commitments we both made, both coalition parties, in the Coalition Agreement.”

I made it clear, therefore, that this was an overall approach to a package of measures which we had both entered into solemnly in the coalition agreement. Most people in the country would think it perfectly reasonable that when one party to such an agreement decides to pick and choose the measures that it will support, it is right for the other party to say, “Well, in that case we will need to pick and choose a bit ourselves so that we can continue with the rest of the very important work that this coalition Government are doing.”

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Why does the right hon. Gentleman not just admit that it is obvious from their response today that his new friends in the Tory party have never been serious about Lords reform, and that on this, as on the alternative vote referendum, he has been badly let down by his friend the Prime Minister? Why did he not offer a referendum, which may have eased the passage of the Bill through both Houses?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I did suggest, in the latter stages of the discussions within the Government, that we should hold a referendum on election day in return for delaying both the first elections to the House of Lords to 2020 and the first boundary changes coming into effect in 2020, but that was not a position that found favour with my coalition partners on this occasion. The hon. Gentleman points a finger at Conservative Members about their commitment to political and constitutional reform, yet Labour has in many respects been a whole lot more cynical and insincere, claiming that Labour Members are fervent supporters of House of Lords reform and, as I explained earlier, refusing to will the means and talking only about the ends.