David Cameron warned not to punish Lords over tax credits clash

The Prime Minister has ordered a review into the relationship between MPs and the Lords after peers defeated the Government’s tax credit reforms.
Meeting MPs: George Osborne’s approach was too “confrontational”, say some Tories
PA Wire
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David Cameron was today warned not to “punish” the Lords after the parliamentary clash over tax credits.

Former Lords Speaker Baroness Hayman backed the review ordered by the Prime Minister into the relationship between the two Houses of Parliament after peers defeated the Government’s tax credit reforms.

But the Labour peer said: “This review mustn’t be seen as punishment for the Lords, and the Speaker of the Commons himself said that nothing procedurally improper had been done.”

Ministers have accused the Lords of breaching a century-old convention that the Lords does not block financial measures.

Opposition parties insist that it was a welfare matter and have criticised the use of a statutory instrument — secondary legislation — rather than in a Bill to push the tax credit changes through Parliament.

However, former Tory leader Lord Howard said: “The basic principle is this: the House of Commons is elected, the House of Lords is not. The House of Commons is accountable, the House of Lords is not.

“So, the House of Commons has to have its primacy recognised, it has to be able to have its way.”

George Osborne was today due to address Tory MPs amid concerns that he adopted an unnecessarily “confrontational” stance on his tax credits plans.

The Chancellor was set to speak at the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee after peers voted to force the Government to introduce transitional relief for at least three years for families hard hit by the £4.5 billion of cuts. Many Tory MPs were expected to broadly back the tax credit changes and his criticism of the Lords’ conduct, but some believe it could have been avoided.

“The determination to continue without any flexibility to deal with hard cases made the environment more confrontational than it needed to be,” said one senior Tory MP.

A Conservative peer and former Cabinet minister added: “Perhaps it would have been better to put it in the Finance Bill.”

The review set up by Mr Cameron will be chaired by former Tory Lords leader Lord Strathclyde and will examine the relationship between the two chambers to ensure peers cannot wreck the Government’s legislative programme.

Baroness Hayman said the review should clarify that major issues of policy should not be presented to Parliament using statutory instruments, given the “limited scrutiny” that is possible of them in both chambers.

The Lords defeat means tax credit recipients will now face a longer wait to know the impact the changes will have on their finances.

The Prime Minister’s spokeswoman acknowledged the letters informing recipients their tax credits were to be reduced — which had been expected to go out around the end of the year — could not be issued until the changes to the system were in place.

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