House of lords

Portrait of the week | 29 October 2015

Home After it was twice defeated in the Lords on its plans to reduce working tax credits, the government announced a review of the workings of Parliament, to be led by Lord Strathclyde, the former leader of the House of Lords. Peers had voted for a motion by Lady Hollis of Heigham to delay the measures until the introduction of ‘full transitional protection’ for those who would suffer loss, and for a motion by Lady Meacher to delay them until the government had responded to an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The IFS had said that three million working families would be on average £1,300 a year worse

Steerpike

A coalition victory at Westminster Dog of the Year

As stormclouds gathered over London, the most politically connected pooches in the country assembled by the House of Lords for the most eagerly anticipated event of the year – the Westminster Dog of the Year competition. Among the familiar faces – including Alec Shelbrooke’s Maggie and Boris, and David Burrowes’ Chomeley, Steerpike spotted a number of novice entrants. Baroness Masham had left her pack of seven dachshunds at home in Yorkshire, and had instead brought with her the soft-coated Wheaten Terrier, Theodora (aka Teddy). Having bonded with her lookalike, Hugo Swire’s cockapoo Rocco, the pair made firm friends, and proved that cooperation between the Commons and the Lords is actually possible. After Monday’s embarrassment

James Forsyth

Lords of misrule

A few days after the general election, I bumped into one of David Cameron’s longest-standing political allies, one of those who had helped him get selected for Witney back in 2000. I remarked that he must be delighted that Cameron had now won a majority. To my surprise, he glumly replied that it would only be significant if Cameron were to create a hundred new peers. Without them, he warned, the govern-ment’s most important measures would end up bogged down in the Lords, where Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined comfortably outnumber the Tories. Now, normally when people urge the Prime Minister to create new peers it is because they

William Hague prepares to go to war in the Lords

On Monday night the Tories were narrowly defeated in the Lords by 289 to 272 on their plans to cut tax credits. With not even Lord Lloyd-Webber’s last minute flight across the pond to vote enough to prevent the government’s defeat, it only adds insult to injury to note that a number of the newly appointed Tory peers were not introduced into the house in time to have a say. As William Hague is one such peer, the former foreign secretary has been left seething at the result. Writing for the Telegraph, Hague has launched a scathing attack on the Lib Dem peers who voted against tax credits. In a cutting remark he likens them

Osborne prepares to face 1922 Committee as Tory anger at peers builds

It is difficult to exaggerate the fury in the Tory party at the House of Lords after last night’s double defeat. MPs I have spoken to today want swift and damaging retribution from the government for the Upper Chamber’s behaviour that goes far beyond what ministers are likely to propose, with some suggesting that the bishops should be the first to take the hit because they should understand the constitutional delicacies involved in votes like this given their ‘privileged constitutional position in the Chamber’. Mind you, the Bishops weren’t as turbulent last night as they could have been: only the Archbishop of York supported the Baroness Hollis amendment that delayed

Isabel Hardman

Ministers must now work out how to avoid a similar showdown with the Lords

Unsurprisingly, the double defeat in the Lords on tax credits came up at Cabinet today. Baroness Stowell, Leader of the House of Lords, told the meeting that peers had broken the ‘longstanding convention’ of primacy of the Commons on financial matters. The Prime Minister reiterated his desire for a ‘rapid review’, details of which may emerge later today (once ministers have worked out what that rapid review might entail). Ministers need to work out what it is possible to announce that ensures the same scenario doesn’t arise again when the government tries to get a new Statutory Instrument through. The changes need to be something that the Lords will approve,

Chris Grayling: we’ll figure out how to take a measured approach with the Lords ‘in the next few hours’

After the government’s humiliating defeats in the House of Lords yesterday over tax credits, how will it seek revenge on the upper chamber? Chris Grayling, the Leader of the House of Commons, spoke on the Today programme about the government’s plans. On tax credits, he said ‘the Chancellor is clear, he will look again at the transitional arrangements’. But on the relationship between the Commons and the Lords, Grayling said a more careful approach would be taken — one that will be worked out ‘in the next few hours’: ‘The first thing not to do is to react on the hoof to this. We have to have a measured look at what the

Osborne pledges help for tax credit claimants after Lords humiliation

Tonight has not been a good one for George Osborne, with peers refusing to take his word that he was in ‘listening mode’ about tax credits. He didn’t look particularly happy about the matter when he gave a pooled clip to broadcasters a few minutes ago. He complained about an unelected group of Labour and Lib Dem lords voting down a matter passed by the House of Commons, and added: ‘I said I would listen and that’s precisely what I intend to do. I believe we can achieve the same goal of reforming tax credits, saving the money we need to save to secure our economy while at the same

Isabel Hardman

Number 10 lashes out at Lords on tax credits vote

Number 10’s response to the government being defeated twice in the Lords on tax credits is, unsurprisingly, to say that the problem is the House of Lords, not the policy in question. A Number 10 spokesman has said this evening that there will be a review to see how the breach of a constitutional convention can be repaired: ‘The Prime Minister is determined we will address this constitutional issue. A convention exists and it has been broken. He has asked for a rapid review to see how it can be put back in place.’ There will be further details of this review tomorrow. This does suggest that the government will

Isabel Hardman

Peers offered tax credit deal: behave and Osborne will listen to you

The House of Lords is unusually packed this afternoon for the debate on tax credit cuts. As I explained earlier, there are four motions to consider, and the government has decided to plump for one by the Bishop of Portsmouth as the least worst way of peers expressing their dissatisfaction with the situation. Tory Leader of the Lords Baroness Stowell has just told peers that she visited Number 11 this morning and that the Chancellor ‘would listen very carefully were the House to express its concern in the way that it is precedented for us to do’. The Bishop’s amendment adds the following to the end of the motion introducing

Isabel Hardman

What to expect from today’s Lords showdown on tax credits

There could be four troublesome votes on tax credits in the Lords this afternoon, each challenging not just the measures that George Osborne is keen to introduce, but also the way that the Lords functions. The most troublesome of all in terms of the constitutional implications is the amendment to the motion introducing the instrument from Baroness Manzoor. This is the Lib Dem ‘fatal’ motion and it changes the government motion ‘that the draft Regulations laid before the House on 7 September be approved’ to ‘that this House declines to approve the draft Regulations laid before the House on 7 September’. The Lib Dems want to appear to be tougher

Matthew Hancock on tax credits: ‘George is very much in listening mode’

The House of Lords is set to vote on several measures relating to the tax credits reforms today and Westminster is on tenterhooks to see if they have the nerve to kill off the cuts. Matthew Hancock, the Cabinet Office minister and close college of George Osborne, said on the Today programme the government is listening to the concern in the Lords — echoing the words of Nicky Morgan yesterday: ‘George is very much in listening mode and the peers this afternoon have the opportunity through a motion put down the Bishop of Portsmouth to express regret at this measures without braking this constitutional convention, long standing.’ Hancock reiterated his admiration for the Lords’ work

The Spectator’s notes | 10 September 2015

Presumably Britain has some sort of policy on immigration, asylum and refugees, but instead of struggling to understand it, you can save time by following its media presentation, since that is what seems to concern the government most. Essentially, the line is that Labour lets them all in and the Tories don’t and won’t (‘No ifs, no buts’). When, as at the last election, it turns out that net immigration has been rising under David Cameron, he apologises shyly and sounds tough again. He was sounding very tough until last week, when the photograph of the dead boy on the Turkish beach suddenly turned him all soft. This Monday, his

Lord Rennard’s call for House of Lords reform backfires

In this year’s dissolution honours, the Liberal Democrats were awarded 11 peerages, three more than their total number of MPs. Since this brought the party’s roll call of Lib Dem peers to 112, sceptics have been quick to point out that this number appears to be at odds with the party, which had previously prided itself on reforming the ever-growing House of Lords. Happily the whiffs of hypocrisy haven’t stopped Lib Dem peers from grumbling about the crowded upper house. Yesterday Lord Rennard — the Lib Dem peer who was readmitted to the party last year after facing suspension over allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women — decided the time was right to call for

Barometer | 3 September 2015

Peers’ peers Forty-five new peers were created. Are we alone in having an upper house of parliament made up of appointed cronies? FRANCE Senate has 348 members elected for six-year terms by 150,000 state officials known as ‘grandes electeurs’. GERMANY Bundesrat is made up of 69 members delegated by governments of individual states. ITALY Senate composed of 321 members, of whom 315 are elected for five-year terms by voters aged 25 and above, and 6 appointed as senators for life. JAPAN House of Councillors composed of 242 members elected for six-year terms under a system of proportional representation. UNITED STATES Senate has 100 members, two for each state excluding Washington DC, directly

Why a politician-free House of Lords is the only democratic solution

In my business, there’s a lot of fretting about the idea of representativeness. Pollsters put questions to, say, a thousand people – and take them as a sample of the country. How to be sure that you have the right sample? You need the right number of men, women, northerners, middle class, Lib Dem voters etc – but that’s the easy part. Your method of selection matters hugely, and it can skew the sample in other, less tangible ways. Every pollster is vulnerable to this so-called ‘selection bias’ . If you survey people on high streets, for example, you’ll get people tend to be out-and-about – rather than at home. If you survey

Letters | 27 August 2015

Trimming the ermine Sir: I am a new boy in the House of Lords compared with Viscount Astor — though I did hear Manny Shinwell speak — but he is right that it is bursting at the seams, and something needs to be done about it (‘Peer review’, 22 August). I detect signs of a consensus that the right number of peers is about 450. It is 782 at the moment. In the 16 divisions since the election, the largest number of peers voting was 459. The Lords values its crossbenchers and if their number were set at one fifth of the total, that would yield 90 on this figuring.

Isabel Hardman

Is Shas Sheehan the “least deserving person to ever be made a Lib Dem peer?”

As well as it being rather amusing that a party officially committed to the abolition of the House of Lords has stuffed a few more of its grandees into the Upper Chamber, it’s worth looking will be wearing the ermine. There seems to have been a bit of a desperate hunt to find people. The MPs who lost their seats or stood down might be fair enough. But some party figures are scratching their heads rather at the appointment of one party member who was a councillor for just four years. Shas Sheehan did also stand as a parliamentary candidate (and lost, twice), but then so have many others in

Long-serving frontbenchers and the Spadocracy dominate the 2015 dissolution peers

The 2015 Dissolution Peerages have been announced, with many of the names floated in the press over the last few weeks duly being elevated to the House of Lords. The appointment of long-serving politicians such as William Hague, Alistair Darling, Ming Campbell and David Blunkett is not a surprise, but there are a few unexpected names. The most striking is Tessa Jowell, who is running to be Labour’s London mayoral candidate. If Jowell wins the nomination, she would end up doing a Boris and serving in City Hall and Westminster. The Spadocracy is well represented too, with former advisers James O’Shaughnessy (Conservative), Jonny Oates (Lib Dem) and Spencer Livermore (Labour) receiving peerages, while Kate Fall and Philippa Stroud