Fixed-term Parliaments bill clears Lords

25th May 2011

Government plans to set the date of the next general election at May 7 2015 and for polls to be held every five years has completed its stages in the Lords.

Earlier this month the government was defeated by 190 to 184, when peers voted to let each Parliament after the current one pass a resolution should they wish to continue with the fixed-term law.

Ministers are expected to ask MPs to overturn the defeat when the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill when it returns to the Commons.

As part of the coalition agreement, the Conservative and Liberal Democrats agreed to introduce fixed term parliaments. But if a government lost the confidence of MPs before the five years was up, the bill contains provisions for Parliament to be dissolved.

Currently the prime minister has the power to call a general election at any time.

In a short debate on Tuesday, former Tory MP Lord Cormack said he hoped that "what was not a terribly good Bill but is now a slightly better Bill will come back from another place in the state in which it leaves this House".

Labour's Lord Bach praised the conduct of all those involved in the passage of the Bill, but said "this is completely the wrong way of passing constitutional change in this country”.

He told peers: "I believe that if there had been a free vote in this House-here I am looking particularly at Conservative peers-there certainly would have been four years rather than five."

The shadow justice minister said his he hoped the Bill would be "accepted by the House of Commons as it leaves here today".

The Advocate-General for Scotland, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, agreed that "this Bill goes to another place in a better shape than that in which it came here".

He added: "No doubt the Commons will consider its constitutional novelty."

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