Lords Reform: ‘Get on with it' say Lib Dems

Liberal Democrats in both Houses of Parliament have called on Gordon Brown to get off the starting blocks on Lords reform.  The Party has long-called for a wholly or substantially elected Second Chamber and our MPs and Peers voted by large majorities for reform in March 2007.  A paper to be discussed at our Autumn Conference will argue for a fully elected Senate.

The Prime Minister promised there would be a statement to outline progress on reform before Parliament rises for the Summer Recess.  Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, fulfilled this promise this week in a statement to MPs but promised no progress until the ‘turn of the year’, when the fourth Lord Reform White Paper in eight years will be put to Parliament.  Legislation will be delayed until after the next general election while a cross-party group discusses what powers the new chamber should have, by which voting system it should be elected, and how the transition from here to there should be handled.  Shadow Leader of the Commons, Simon Hughes, commented, “If Jack Straw is really committed—and if the new Prime Minister is really committed, as last week’s announcement suggested—to a major new constitutional settlement, in which there is a properly democratic bicameral Parliament, and in which the Executive return more powers to Parliament, would it not be logical to get on with the process, rather than slow it down?” Liberal Democrat Leader in the Lords, Lord (Tom) McNally, added: “Following the decisive votes in the House of Commons, Ministers should just get on with the job.”

Lord (Paul) Tyler, who chaired the Party’s recent working group on Better Governance, and speaks on Constitutional Affairs in the House of Lords commented,  “There is no need to re-open the issue of powers of the House of Lords, as Jack Straw suggests.  That was very comprehensively dealt with the Cunningham Committee just last year.  Reforming the Lords has obvious basic principles behind it – those of legitimacy and democracy.  What is needed now is not another Report but legislation.  If the Government is serious, that is the course they should pursue – and Ministers should make clear that refuseniks in the House of Lords cannot put off in perpetuity the dawn of democracy in our second chamber.  It is time to stop discussing and start doing.”

This article first appeared in Liberal Democrat News

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