Downing Street Says » House of Lords reform

Asked if the boundary review was dead, the PMOS told the journalists that they should wait for the announcement from the Deputy Prime Minister later that day. He reminded them that each Boundary Commission would present final recommendations in Autumn 2013 and the issue would then return to the House of Commons.

Asked if there was enough time to legislate for any changes to constituency boundaries before the next election, the PMOS replied that the process and parliamentary timetable were designed with that objective in mind.

Asked whether the Prime Minister had discussed with Nick Clegg and other senior Lib Dems their threat to vote down any changes proposed, the PMOS said again that the Boundary Commissions would report back in 2013 after they had completed their work.

When asked about potential whipping arrangements, the PMOS said that the process was still ongoing and we would need to wait until recommendations were received. Asked if boundary reform remained a Government commitment, the PMOS replied that it was a Government policy and in the Coalition Agreement.

Asked if the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) still took the view that it was vital for democracy that it was passed, particularly the equalisation of constituency sizes, the PMOS told journalists again that they should wait for the DPM’s announcement later that day.

Asked whether the PM had abided by the Coalition Agreement, the PMOS said that the Coalition Agreement included a number of constitutional and political reforms, one of which was to reduce the number of constituencies and equalise their size, in order to ensure that people’s votes had equal weight. The PM’s position was that he had wanted to move towards a mainly elected House of Lords. A majority of MPs had voted in support of that in the House of Commons, but it was not possible to move forward without consensus and cross party support.

Asked if the PM or DPM had talked to the Leader of the Opposition in the recent days or weeks ahead of today’s announcement, the PMOS said he did not believe there had been any recent discussions with the Leader of the Opposition on this issue.

Asked why the PM was not making a joint statement with the DPM, the PMOS said the House of Lords Reform Bill was one which the DPM was taking through the House of Commons.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Monday, August 6, 2012

House of Lords reform

No Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries