By Andrew Alexander - 30th January 2008
The prime minister is taking no action on parliamentary reform because he "can't stand criticism" and regards the Commons as "a nuisance in his timetable", former chancellor Kenneth Clarke has said.
In an interview with ePolitix.com, the head of the Conservative democracy taskforce said that Gordon Brown's pledges to restore power to Parliament and run a more open style of government were designed only to improve his public image.
Clarke accepted that he may be proved wrong if Brown lives up to the promises he made on taking office last year.
However he said: "My unworthy suspicion is that in his first few days Gordon was striking a series of attitudes designed to give himself the right public image as a new prime minister.
"He and his advisers were trying to tackle directly what they perceived to be weaknesses in his public image and the perception of him by the outside world.
"For example, Gordon was always regarded as a control freak, someone who could not delegate, someone who could not stand criticism, a somewhat autocratic figure with difficult relations with his colleagues.
"Gordon presented himself as an enthusiast for parliamentary reform and a more open democracy, insisted he was going to revive cabinet government and so on.
"Judging Gordon by his reaction at prime minister's question time I think he would actually hate it personally if anything was done to make Parliament more powerful or him more accountable to it.
"He can't stand criticism and he's far too sensitive to any criticism of his position. He gives me the impression of someone who regards parliament as a bit of a nuisance in his timetable."
Conservatives
The democracy taskforce has most recently set out plans to restore trust in MPs by closing their generous final salary pension scheme and accepting independently-awarded pay increases.
Previous reports backed moves to reduce the government's control of the parliamentary schedule and measures to restore "proper" cabinet government.
Clarke acknowledged that David Cameron has yet to firmly commit to the taskforce's proposals for reducing the power of the executive.
But he said he believes the Tory leader is "genuinely, instinctively of my views on the need to reform and improve Parliament".
"I do accept I'm asking a leader of the Opposition to commit himself to some binding constraints on his power and subjection to greater accountability than any of his recent predecessors have been prepared to put up with," he said.
"The reason I took this job on is I think David is genuinely, instinctively of my views on the need to reform and improve Parliament and on cabinet government.
"I intend to keep pressing him to tie himself down with some commitments on the subject, and I still believe that he probably will."
PMQs
The taskforce's second report, 'Power to the People - Rebuilding Parliament' discussed the possibility of reforming or scrapping prime minister's question time because "its football crowd atmosphere is damaging to the standing of the Commons".
Clarke said the weekly Commons grilling was "an appalling Punch and Judy circus" with "virtually nil" political content, but was popular with the media and the public.
"It is just part of the political circus and I can't really be very optimistic that much is going to be done to improve it in the near future," he said.
The well-known pro-European also criticised his party's opposition to the EU Reform Treaty, saying it provided a much-needed overhaul of the union's decision making procedures.
"I can't help but think that, had we been in office, a Conservative government would have been very pleased to have negotiated this treaty," he said.
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