Tuesday Volume 521 18 January 2011 No. 100 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 18 January 2011 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2011 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/ Enquiries to the Office of Public Sector Information, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail:
[email protected] 679 18 JANUARY 2011 680 The Deputy Prime Minister: If we needed any House of Commons confirmation, this week of all weeks, that the Labour party’s commitment to cleaning up politics and political reform is a complete and utter farce—the leader of the Tuesday 18 January 2011 Labour party who, sadly, is not in his place, was going around the television studios last weekend saying that The House met at half-past Two o’clock he believed in new politics and that he wanted to reach out to Liberal Democrat voters—it is the dinosaurs in the Labour party in the House of Lords who are PRAYERS blocking people’s ability to have a say on the electoral system that they want. There cannot be meaningful political reform with such weak political leadership. [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD): One hundred years after the temporary provisions of the Parliament Act 1911 were introduced, some of us are impatient for Oral Answers to Questions my right hon. Friend to succeed in achieving an elected second Chamber. Can he reassure me that the grandfathering of voting rights will not be offered to newly appointed peers under the present Government? DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER The Deputy Prime Minister: The specific reference to grandfathering in the coalition agreement applies to the The Deputy Prime Minister was asked— staged way in which we want reform of the House of Lords implemented over time.