Downing Street Says » Constitutional reform

Put that the Labour Party had promised a referendum on voting reform in 1997 and why should voters believe them this time around, the PMS said it was not for him to comment on party manifestos. The PMS said that the Prime Minister was completely committed to holding a referendum on the alternative vote some time in the next Parliament.

Asked why the Government had decided to try and force a vote on the AV issue when there was clearly no parliamentary time to get it through, the PMS said that finding the parliamentary time was for the business managers to determine. We expected amendments to be tabled today.

Asked if he would accept that it would be a very tight turnaround to get it through and wasn’t this just a piece of symbolism, the PMS said that he wouldn’t characterise it as symbolism; this was an important initiative that the Government and the Prime Minister were committed to. The Prime Minister would be setting out the wider context today; a reform of the voting system was one part of this, but it was also about reforming the House of Lords, giving people a greater say on how they use public services, codifying the constitution and potentially a written constitution.

Asked why he had brought peoples attention to the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, the PMS replied that it would be good to have made progress by 2015.

Asked what the Prime Minister could point to that showed the public were actually interested in a change to the voting system, the PMS said that he thought there was a general feeling in the country that we should continue the process of constitutional renewal and reform.

Asked if the codified document would provide the basis for any written constitution, the PMS said that he thought they would be separate documents; one would codify and the other would identify the principles that could underpin a written constitution.

Asked if some of the measures mentioned in the Magna Carta would come into force come the anniversary, the PMS said we hadn’t got as far as looking at that kind of detail yet.

Asked what the Prime Minister’s message would be to those who claimed that this was a cynical pre-election exercise, the PMS said people should look at the Government’s record on constitutional reform since 1997, such as the devolution of Scotland and Wales, the Freedom of Information Act and the reform of the House of Lords. The PMS added that a lot had changed in that time and peoples’ expectations of Government had changed as well, both at national and local level.

Asked what had changed in the House of Lords, the PMS replied that the Government had taken steps to remove the procedures by which new hereditary peers could join the House of Lords.

Put that the Prime Minister had gone quiet on the subject of constitutional reform soon after becoming Prime Minister, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had been committed to this throughout his time in Government, having been closely involved in some of the early constitutional reforms established in 1997. The PMS added that the damage done to the reputation of the Houses of Parliament through the expenses scandal reinforced the need to continue the process of constitutional renewal and reform.

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» Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Constitutional reform

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