Clegg defiant as peers bid to scupper referendum
Nick Clegg has insisted an attempt to block the electoral reform referendum planned for this May will fail.
The deputy prime minister’s comments came after a marathon 21-hour all-night session of the Lords, the first of several expected this week, came to a close in the upper House.
The government has to pass the parliamentary voting system and constituencies bill by February 16th if its referendum planned for May 5th can take place, because of Electoral Commission rules.
Labour’s peers in the Lords have done all they can to prevent the bill taking place, culminating in this week’s confrontations. The session beginning on Tuesday finished earlier than expected, however, taking just an hour and a half.
Speaking under pressure from Labour MPs in the Commons, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg attacked the “lowest form of foot-dragging” on display in the upper House.
“It will be passed,” he said of the bill. “We are determined that it shall be passed.”
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The opposition objects to the government including provisions for decreasing the size of the Commons from 650 to 600 MPs in the bill.
Labour figures have previously claimed the measure is a form of “gerrymandering” being pushed through for partisan advantage. The opposition is prepared to accept the electoral reform referendum if the existing bill is split into two halves.
Peers began sitting on Monday at 15:38 GMT and continued until lunchtime on Tuesday, in a 21-hour debate. Just six amendments were covered.
After debate began on Monday afternoon the leader of the Lords, Thomas Strathclyde, pointed out that scrutiny of the bill had begun on November 3rd and that, since then, “the opposition’s approach has been consistently and deliberately slow”.
Last week the Lords debated two amendments of the bill for six hours, before this week’s marathon stint began.
“The opposition have dragged their heels; they have had their fun; it is now time for this House to behave responsibly,” Lord Strathclyde pleaded yesterday afternoon.
Charles Falconer, leading for Labour in reply, insisted that the bill required “proper scrutiny”.
He warned: “If the government insist on their timetabling arrangements, we have no option but to do all in our power to ensure that the bill gets proper scrutiny, and therefore that it will not receive royal assent by February 16th if it still contains part one and part two.”
An earlier attempt by former lord chancellor Lord Falconer to claim the bill was ‘hybrid’ met with failure.
