Fury as Clegg blocks poll reform

Jan 29 2013

Conservatives have turned their fire on Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg as he prepares to wreck a planned review of parliamentary boundaries which Tories hoped could be worth up to 20 extra seats for their party at the next general election.

Mr Clegg is expected to lead Liberal Democrat ministers through the opposition division lobbies to thwart Conservative plans to redraw parliamentary constituency boundaries before the election scheduled for 2015.

In an unprecedented move reflecting the split between coalition parties on the issue, Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to suspend the requirement for Government ministers to exercise collective responsibility for the vote on the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill.

Mr Clegg initially supported the changes as part of a package of constitutional reforms, but announced last summer that his party would try to delay the review after the Tories forced the abandonment of plans to reform the House of Lords.

As debate got under way in the Commons, Tory backbenchers made no secret of their anger at the Lib Dem leader, who was not in the chamber, quoting his earlier comments about the "simple principle of fairness" behind the move to equalise the size of constituencies.

Leader of the Commons Andrew Lansley said he still hoped that Mr Clegg would want to see the changes, which would reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600, saving £13.5 million a year, introduced in time for the election.

Mr Lansley denounced as "an abuse of the parliamentary process" an amendment, backed by Lib Dem ministers in the House of Lords, which would delay any boundary changes until after the 2015 poll.

He urged MPs to reject the amendment and vote instead for the review to proceed straightaway with no further debate in Parliament.

Delay now would mean the 2015 election being fought on boundaries which are 15 years out of date, he said. With electorates varying in size from 43,000 in Arfon, north Wales, to 103,000 in the Isle of Wight, "some votes (would) count more than others".

"The principle of greater equality in the value of each vote is at the heart of this boundary review," Mr Lansley told MPs. "Votes should carry much more equal weight in electing members to this House and choosing a government."