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Peers warned on future of Lords
House of Lords

Labour MPs have claimed that peers could have been "signing their own death warrant" with their behaviour over the Prevention of Terrorism Bill.

Following an all-night sitting of both houses of parliament, angry backbenchers and ministers told ePolitix.com that the prime minister would now go into the election determined to end the second chamber's ability to frustrate him.

One minister told this website that he hoped Tony Blair would be resolved to beef up manifesto commitments to democratise the upper house as a result of its continued refusal to back the legislation.

Other MPs argued that peers had made their point and should now back down before they provoked a constitutional crisis.

And former sports minister Tony Banks told ePolitix.com: "If nothing else this will hasten changes in the House of Lords."

He argued that as MPs have to face re-election "we are entitled to be wrong".

"Because the electorate can then deal with us in a way which will teach us a lesson if that happened to be the case," he explained.

"You can't do anything, there are no sanctions against the House of Lords."

Banks denied that the impasse was a problem of Labour's own making given the government's failure to reform the Lords in the last eight years.

"I think this is just one of those enormous problems that has been given to us by judges and law lords who are completely detached from reality," he said.

"The idea that we should put our trust in judges rather than politicians is something that I find absolutely amazing given the ineptitude of some of their decisions and the fact that they seem to be wholly detached from reality."

"It has become an test between an elected chamber and an unelected chamber and I'm afraid in the end that becomes almost a bigger issue than the question that is being put," he added.

He drew back from recommending that Blair call an election on the basis of "who runs the country".

"I most certainly don't because politics is far too complicated for that particular approach as Ted Heath found out to his cost many years ago," the West Ham MP said.

"I don't think you do that but it will certainly be an issue about the way we do things in this country. They are busily signing their own death warrant, so to speak."

Published: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:12:50 GMT+00
Author: Daniel Forman

"It has become an test between an elected chamber and an unelected chamber and I'm afraid in the end that becomes almost a bigger issue than the question that is being put"