Lords Reform

Today the House of Commons started debating on how we should reform the House of Lords (the vote is tomorrow).

In an email to supporters Unlock Democracy said "we have significant grounds for optimism, but not for complacency. 9 cabinet members have written to Labour MPs urging them to vote for the 50%, 60% and 80% elected options, while Liberal Democrat support appears to be holding firm. Our main concern however is that despite David Cameron's pledge to personally support the 80% option and despite a manifesto commitment for a 'substantially elected second chamber', Conservative support is not as firm as we would like it to be". I would like to urge David Cameron to call on his parties MPs to vote for its own policy.

The vote tomorrow is on the principle of reform, not the details of the Government's White Paper. If the democratic options are defeated tomorrow, the prospects of reform will be put back by a generation, it has taken us ages to get another chance to have parliament discuss the reforms since the proposals made by Robin Cook didn’t win sufficient support. So please encourage your local MPs to support an elected House of Lords.