COMMONS MUST HAVE FINAL SAY ON LORDS REFORM

Lord Tyler today (Tuesday) told Peers that the Commons must have the final say on future composition of the Lords. 

Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Tyler said: “I have been intrigued and bemused that so many speakers today have on the one hand enthusiastically endorsed the primacy of the House of Commons—some of them very experienced Members of both Houses—and yet denied the right of the Government to use the Parliament Acts as a last resort—the long stop—if consensus cannot be agreed between the two Houses on Lords reform.”

Lord Tyler added that the Liberal Democrats saw primacy of the Commons as a “fundamental premise” and challenged the Lord Chancellor to confirm that the House of Commons would get the final say on a package of proposals for the composition of a reformed second chamber.  The Lord Chancellor described the Commons’ pre-eminence as the “bedrock of our parliamentary balance of power” but refused to commit the Government to use of the Parliament Acts on any Lords Reform Bill.

Commenting after the exchange, Lord Tyler said

“It is quite ridiculous that otherwise sensible people in both Houses, who make primacy of the Commons the absolute touchstone of their approach to the future composition of the House of Lords, want to tear up the very principle behind the Parliament Acts when it comes to making this most important of decisions.

“The Lord Chancellor still failed utterly to confirm that the Government will seek, in the final event, to let the Commons have its way when we vote on a Lords Reform Bill.  It seems Ministers are still seeking to use Peers’ intransigence as an excuse to maintain the illegitimacy of the Lords, and so be able to dismiss whatever inconvenient views it expresses.”

The full exchange is available at:  http://pubs1.tso.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldhansrd/text/70116-0009.htm#07011670000015