Clegg backs Tories on police chiefs

The Deputy Prime Minister said Liberal Democrats have a “duty” not to scupper the plans – which came from the Tory manifesto – despite some in the party pushing for the idea to be piloted first before being imposed nationwide.

Former North Yorkshire Police Authority chairwoman Baroness Harris of Richmond led the shock successful move to defeat the Government in the Lords by tabling an amendment which would strip power to introduce the elected commissioners from the Police and Social Responsibility Bill currently going through Parliament.

The Lib Dem peer said the plan would do “irreparable damage” to the police and questioned whether the consequences of the reforms “have not been thoroughly thought researched or properly thought through”.

But Government Ministers are now determined to overturn the vote in the Commons and are increasingly confident they will get sufficient support. Despite Mr Clegg having expressed “sympathy” with the idea of running pilots in a small number of areas first, Tory Ministers see the London Mayoral model – where Boris Johnson can hire and fire chief constables – as a successful test bed and fear pilots would create dangerous uncertainty for senior officers.

Mr Clegg, who has promised to show more “muscular” Lib Dem influence in the coalition after last week’s election hammering for the party, said the defeat would be reversed in the Commons. But, giving evidence to the Commons political and constitutional reform committee, he stressed that the idea was not one which had been promoted by his party.

The Sheffield Hallam MP said: “It is a coalition agreement commitment and I take very seriously, even in cases which don’t, as I say, flow from one side of the coalition, our collective duty to honour what we’ve said we were going to do in the coalition agreement. And that’s why the Government will seek to reverse that vote last night.”

Mr Clegg had indicated his support for his peers’ efforts to slow the introduction of elected commissioners by piloting the scheme but the upper house went much further by proposing the idea of elections be scrapped altogether.

Under the Bill, police and crime commissioners (PCCs) were due to be elected from May next year to replace police authorities in England and Wales, although there have been concerns among senior officers and authority members about the plans.

Elected officials would have the power to hire and fire chief constables and would set the police force’s budget and “strategic direction”, but there are concerns a low turnout could allow extremists to win control.

However, the amendment proposed that the commissioners should be chosen by a local police and crime panel, and the surprise Government defeat now raises the prospect of a battle between the Commons and Lords as Ministers try to get the measures into law.

The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer, also voted in favour of Baroness Harris’ amendment. One of the Lib Dem peers who abstained said the Bill did not meet coalition agreement promises of “strict checks and balances” on the commissioners.

Baroness Hamwee, vice-chair of the Lib Dems’ backbench home affairs committee, said: “I hope what has happened is going to allow a rethink which will reflect better the coalition agreement.

“The new model should be subject to ‘strict’ checks and balances. There was certainly no confidence that what is in the Bill at present amounts to that.”

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Lords had “ripped the heart out” of the legislation.