Helen Jones
Main Page: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)Department Debates - View all Helen Jones's debates with the Cabinet Office
(10 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Deputy Prime Minister
I will, of course, look into these provisions, following my hon. Friend’s entreaty, but I do not want him to hold his breath, thinking that in the latter stage of this Parliament our absolute priority will be the reform of the 1848 Act.
Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)
Was the Deputy Prime Minister consulted on, and did he approve of, the Prime Minister’s plan to create 117 new peers, at a cost of £18 million, and how does that square with the Government’s promise to cut the cost of politics? Was it only elected politics they had in mind?
The Deputy Prime Minister
The Labour party stuffed the House of Lords year after year. More than that, we debated hour after hour how we could take all party leaders out of the equation and bring the British public into it by introducing a smidgeon of democracy in the House of Lords, and what did the Labour party do? Having lectured people for decades about the need to reform the bastion of privilege and patronage, when it had the chance to reform the House of Lords, it voted against it.