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Ed Miliband has been called on to force Labour peers to back down in their effort to delay legislation which paves the way for a referendum on the voting system.
Leader of the Commons Sir George Young said members the upper chamber had brought the House into "disrepute" by the tactics adopted to derail the plans.
Commons Speaker John Bercow intervened to state there are "real tensions" between the two Houses over the ongoing stand off between government and opposition peers.
He called for courtesy from MPs in dealing with the other chamber.
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill needs to be passed by the February 16 for the referendum to take place as the Electoral Commission has ruled that it needs three months to prepare for the vote.
During questions on forthcoming parliamentary business, Tory MP Harriet Baldwin attacked Labour for their "outrageous filibustering tactics" in the upper chamber.
The West Worcestershire MP asked when the legislation would reach the Commons again.
Sir George said he hoped that the Labour leader would speak to his supporting peers so the government could make progress with the Bill.
He told MPs: I do hope the leader of the Opposition will make contact with his supporters in the other place and ensure that that House is not brought into further disrepute by the tactics that are being adopted.
"The government very much wants to make progress with the legislation and that is our intention.
"I hope there will be reflection over the weekend. The second chamber is a revising chamber, I know it would want to think very carefully before it blocked a Bill which had received the support of this House."
The committee stage of the bill has already taken far longer than expected, peers taking part in all-night sittings last week, with proceedings set to resume on Monday.
On Monday Lords leader Lord Strathclyde said the government has accepted there is a "real risk" that the referendum may not be held on 5 May because of Labour's filibustering tactics.
On the 12th day debate in the committee stage of the bill, he said ministers were willing to accept changes to find a "sensible and constructive way forward".
Article Comments
The Conservatives need to ditch the disgusting stitch up that the AV Bill represents. Including the section to get rid of 50 MPs that will aid the Tories is nothing to do with constitutional reform its just gerrymandering.
The Tories are the ones holding up the AV Bill because of the underhand way they tried to hide the stitch up clause.
I hope they do fail to get the bill through by the 16th Feb. It should never have been put together in the first place. The Tories and the Lib Dems are a disgrace at how they try and con the public and aim to create dictatorships.
The Labour Lords are 100% right to block this move.
Gary Hills
29th Jan 2011 at 8:43 pm
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