Nick Clegg looking sad fans will be disappointed. The deputy prime minister seemed to be positively enjoying himself during questions today.
A day after Clegg announced in his Demos speech that he was ready to “rock the boat” on the House of Lords, several members wanted to hear more about his plans for the other place. Since the attempt to bring in AV failed, this has been Clegg’s big project for constitutional reform. In particular, he would like to see the majority of the house elected by proportional representation.
When Sadiq Khan, the Shadow Justice Minister, wanted to know whether the reforms would remove the 20 per cent of unelected peers, Clegg stopped looking at his notes to throw a Christmas punch. Labour had achieved “precisely zero per cent” of elected peers. Might he modestly suggest that 80 per cent elected was better than none?
But it was when Natascha Engel, MP for Northeast Derbyshire, suggested that he was rushing ahead of the reforms that he got the giggles. People had been debating this for 100 years, he said, adding as if it should be obvious: “I can’t hide my opinions about the reform of the House of Lords.”
The commitment to reform was unambiguous, he insisted, suggesting that he would be prepared to use the Parliament Act if necessary.
Perhaps this was a liberating topic for Clegg. More likely, he was looking forward to home time.
He managed to find some seasonal cheer in Peter Bones’ question about who would take over if the prime minister was brutally deposed. He would receive the point “in the spirit with which it was given”, he assured Bones.
Clegg will no doubt enjoy some time out from politics at Christmas. But given his ambitions for constitutional reform, he should be busy next year.
Comments
Be the first to comment on this article!