Voting reform bill: peers threaten 'mass revolt' over guillotine attempt
Baroness D'Souza vows to derail bid by David Cameron to get key AV legislation back on track
Plans to hold a referendum on voting reform on 5May are in danger of collapsing after the leader of more than 200 crossbench peers warned of a mass revolt against any attempt to "guillotine" the necessary legislation through the Lords.
Baroness D'Souza, convener of the non-aligned peers, told the Observer that peers might as well "go home" and "cease to exist" if the prime minister moved to put a time limit on the upper house's historic duty and right to scrutinise legislation.
She said that any attempt to introduce a guillotine which David Cameron has threatened to do early this week following agonisingly slow progress on the parliamentary voting system and constituencies bill would provoke uproar and would almost certainly be defeated.
"I think that the majority of peers would be extremely antipathetic to anything that smacked of a guillotine," she said. "The job of this house is to scrutinise legislation and if we lose that we really might as well go home and cease to exist. My lot say it would create a precedent and they are very opposed."
The crossbench peers hold the balance of power in the Lords. D'Souza said that most would be appalled by any move that would interfere with their independence. "It is not only crossbench peers who would be opposed," she said. "I think there would be Tories and Liberal Democrats too."
The upper house has been involved in marathon debates on the dual purpose bill that will allow both for a referendum on changing from "first past the past" voting to the alternative vote (AV), and cut the number of MPs in the Commons from 650 to 600.
The bill vital to the Liberal Democrats, whose primary purpose in the coalition is to end the "first past the post" syst! em must reach the statute book by 16February if there is to be enough time to prepare for a national vote on 5May.
Labour is fiercely opposed to the section of the bill that cuts the number of MPs, arguing that it is an attempt by the Tories to "gerrymander" constituency boundaries in their own favour. It stands accused by the Tories and Lib Dems of filibustering the bill, dragging out debates through the night in an attempt to persuade the coalition to give way over key elements.
The Tories claim that Labour leader Ed Miliband, who backs a referendum on voting reform while opposing the boundary changes, has lost control of his party in the Lords.
Last week Cameron, who argues that the bill will create fairer constituencies that are more equal in size, met crossbench peers to tell them that he believed the only way to stop Labour's delaying tactics was to guillotine the bill. But peers from all sides of the upper house would have to vote for it before time limits could be placed on debate something that has never happened before.
Last night the Labour peer Lord Falconer, the shadow constitutional spokesman, insisted he was ready to discuss compromises with the coalition parties but said there was little sign they would budge on key issues.
Falconer said that if the government pressed ahead with a guillotine motion it would amount to a "constitutional outrage". "The consequence of the guillotine is that the government would get control of the Lords. This would be an abomination. Within seven months of getting into power they are trying to castrate the only independent part of it."
Furious Tories reacted to what they saw as attempts to wreck the bill last week by tabling three days of debate this week including the threat of an all-night sitting on Monday. Special dormitories have been set up to allow peers to take a nap during the proceedings.
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