Coalition strained as Tories kill Lords reforms

The Liberal Democrat leader and Sheffield Halham MP said the backbenchers’ actions meant “part of our contract has now been broken” and he would now be ordering his MPs to block proposals to re-draw the parliamentary boundaries, a Tory-led agenda which some experts believe could hold the key to an outright Conservative victory at the next general election.

Mr Clegg confirmed he was dropping his House of Lords Reform Bill after being informed by the Prime Minister David Cameron that an “insufficient number” of Conservative MPs was prepared to back legislation.

Labour said the announcement was a “humiliation” for the Government which had left the coalition’s ambitious programme of constitutional reforms “in tatters”.

Mr Clegg said he was acting “reluctantly” after the Prime Minister made clear he was unable to reverse the revolt by 91 Tory backbenchers last month which forced the Government to abandon the crucial timetable motion limiting Commons debate on the Lords reform bill.

“The Conservative Party is not honouring the commitment to Lords reform and, as a result, part of our contract has now been broken,” he said.

“Clearly I cannot permit a situation where Conservative rebels can pick and choose the parts of the contract they like, while Liberal Democrat MPs are bound to the entire agreement.

“Coalition works on mutual respect; it is a reciprocal arrangement, a two-way street.

“So I have told the Prime Minister that when, in due course, parliament votes on boundary changes for the 2015 election I will be instructing my party to oppose them.”

The collapse of the constitutional reform programme is a bitter blow for the Lib Dems who had been pinning their hopes on Lords reform after their drubbing in the referendum on AV voting for parliamentary elections.

It also represents a setback for the Conservatives, however, who had been predicted to gain up to 20 seats as a result of the boundary changes – which could be the difference between an overall Tory majority and another hung parliament at the next general election.

Mr Clegg said he had put forward a “last ditch” compromise – staging a referendum on Lords reform on general election day in 2015, with both the boundary changes and the first elections to the Lords deferred until 2020 – but had been rebuffed.

“That would have been in keeping with the coalition agreement, in which neither policy had a set timetable. But this offer was not accepted,” he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister also bitterly attacked Labour for threatening to combine with the Tory rebels to defeat the timetable motion, even though the party said that it supported the principle of a mainly democratically-elected second chamber.

“Regrettably Labour is allowing short-term political opportunism to thwart long-term democratic change,” he said.

But despite his obvious disappointment, Mr Clegg insisted that the Lib Dems would carry on in their coalition partnership with the Conservatives.

“The thing I care about most –the central purpose of the Liberal Democrats in this Government – is to build a fairer society,” he said.

“We will continue with that critical work. We will continue to anchor this Government firmly in the centre ground.”