Labour not trying to sabotage Lords reform, insists Harman

Labour’s deputy leader said her party was committed to seeing the Lords Reform Bill through the Commons after its vote helped the plans to a massive majority at the first hurdle this week.

But Ms Harman said Labour’s opposition to a proposed programme motion, withdrawn by the Government in the face of potential heavy defeat, had been a principled concern.

And she insisted Labour had other concerns about the Bill which needed to be addressed before it could become law , including offering the public a referendum on the plans.

Labour has been attacked by both the Tories and Liberal Democrats in the wake of Tuesday’s tense Commons vote, accused of playing games by threatening the Government with defeat over procedure while claiming to support the principle of the reforms.

But speaking on the Sky News Murnaghan programme, Ms Harman said: “The people who want to undermine the Bill are Tory backbenchers who are using it to have a go at David Cameron and the coalition. We supported the Bill and we have said we will make sure it gets out of the Commons.”

Ms Harman added: “The programme motion, that was a technical procedural thing and we said they had not given enough days for debate.” Ms Harman said she also had concerns over the notion of electing senators for single, 15-year terms, highlighting the case of former MP Derek Conway who was sacked as a Tory MP after it emerged he was paying family members via expenses.

She said: “Then (senators) wouldn’t stand for election again - once they’ve been elected they are there for 15 years and they would not be accountable.

“If you think of Derek Conway, who was employing his children on the public payroll and doing all sorts of things, he would have been elected and he would have been there for 15 years.”

Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi, who was among the 91 rebels on Tuesday night, told Murnaghan: “We don’t need a second chamber full of politicians.

“My view is we need a second chamber reformed properly and we can get on with the reform now if we can build a consensus that we don’t need direct elections, what we need is reform.”