Clegg confirms Lords reform bill to be dropped

NICK Clegg yesterday vowed he would never accept a peerage to an unreformed House of Lords as he formally announced that the government was dropping its bill to bring elections to the Upper Chamber.

Mr Clegg confirmed to MPs that the bill will be dropped because Labour and back-bench Conservatives refused to back a timetable motion to prevent it being talked out. The statement confirmed his announcement over the summer, which has also seen the Liberal Democrats pull out of a deal to back boundary changes to House of Commons constituency seats, which would reduce them by 50 to 600.

The statement gave Tory back-benchers their first chance to vent their anger over the decision, with New Forest MP Eleanor Laing pointing out that Mr Clegg had told her Lords reform and boundary changes were not linked. “He cannot have been telling the truth,” she said.

But in a lighter moment Mr Clegg responded to Labour veteran Dennis Skinner on taking a seat in the Lords: “I don’t think I would be very welcome there.”