Today's FT reports that the prime minister is set to make a final decision on whether to press ahead with any further Lords reform during this parliament.

Following a still unresolved Cabinet wrangle, it has fallen to Tony Blair to decide whether to head for a showdown by legislating to remove the remaining hereditary peers without bringing forward any alternative system of election or selection.

Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott said the bill was "not even dead in the water, it is dead in the slipway".