By Ned Simons - 21st June 2011
Labour has warned it will offer stiff resistance to the coalition's plans to introduce an elected House of Lords.
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon said the draft House of Lords reform bill unveiled by Nick Clegg last month was a "bad bill" and she gave ministers "fair warning" that it would be "properly scrutinised" if it was ever presented as a piece of legislation.
Speaking this afternoon at the start of two days of debate on the coalition's reform plans, Labour's leader in the Lords raised the spectre of the torture inflicted on the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill earlier this year.
Opposition peers were accused of attempting to wreck the crucial piece of coalition legislation that opened the door for a referendum on the Alternative Vote and cut the size of the Commons by filibustering, or delaying its passage through the Lords.
Baroness Royall said that while her party would not necessarily deploy exactly the same tactics this time around, the government needed to know Labour would "scrutinise the bill with the same focus and intensity".
"We have many different opinions on these benches, many of my members are opposed to a directly elected chamber, but we are united as seeing this bill as a bad bill," she said.
"We have a unity of resolve to make sure the issues involved in further reform of this place are properly considered.
"If this House is to be reformed it will be reformed by good and proper legislation not by a bill as bad as the bill before us today."
She added: "Reform should mean proper reform. That in turn means a better bill and a good bill."
Over 100 peers are due to speak in the debate over the next two days and many are expected to savage the coalition's plans to create a slimmed down House with 300 members elected by proportional representation for single terms of 15 years.
Reform plans would 'challenge primacy' of the Commons
All three parties included Lords reform in their election manifestos and a cross party committee chaired by Nick Clegg met several times to discuss Lords reform before the publication of the coalition's draft bill.
But Baroness Royall said the plan presented by the deputy prime minister was "not a product" of that committee and given deep rooted Conservative opposition to reform it was in fact a "Lib Dem bill" that risked setting a reformed Lords on a collision course with the Commons.
The government has insisted the reformed House of Lords would have the same functions as the current House and would not challenge the power of MPs.
But critics argue that members of an elected House would see no reason to submit to the primacy of the Commons as they currently do – leading to constitutional and legislative gridlock.
Barones Royall said Labour would attack the plan on those grounds and warned that it made "not a jot of difference" whether ministers said functions of the Lords and Commons would remain unchanged.
They may as well "assert the Moon is made of green cheese" for all the weight their assurances carried, she told peers.
"The changes will automatically affect the primacy of the House of Commons," she said.
Conservative peer Lord Strathclyde, the Leader of the House of Lords, said the plans would "re-enforce the distinctive character" of both Houses and insisted he was "not seeking to change the role, the powers, or functions" of the Lords.
"The government believes that in the 21st century it is right that this place should be underpinned in its work by a democratic mandate. Both Houses of Parliament should enjoy the confidences of the people," he said.
"The central principle of legitimacy through election should not be forsaken."
The House of Lords will sit at the earlier time of 11am tomorrow morning in order to give peers more time to discuss the proposals. A cross party of MPs and peers will then examine the proposed legislation which is due to be introduced next year.
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