Tory Staffordshire MP leads calls for House of Lords reform after tax credit cuts blocked

Gavin Williamson, Tory MP for South Staffordshire, said the debacle raised questions of the House of Lords' legitimacy.

He said: "The Lords have overstepped the mark by breaching more than 100 years of convention. It has gone from a revising chamber to a vetoing one.

"My personal view is the House of Lords is in desperate need for reform. It is an institution that has little relevance to today's world."

Fellow Tory Lord Cormack, his predecessor in South Staffs, was among the peers who spoke out against the blocking of the move in the debate on Monday night.

He said: "One hundred and four years ago, a Liberal Government decided that this House should not have jurisdiction in budgetary matters."

He said the Liberal Democrats, who now have 111 peers, but only eight MPs, had a 'disproportionate strength' in the Lords after effectively being wiped out by voters at the last election.

Lord Cormack is in a privileged position as calls grow for change, as he currently chairs a committee looking at possible reforms for the upper chamber.

Responding to Lib Dem Baroness Manzoor, who was leading calls to block the tax credit cut, he said: "The noble Baroness speaks for a party which has a disproportionate strength in this House. She and her party believe in proportion. They also believe in the supremacy of the House of Commons.

"How does she square the points I have just made with the vote that she is seeking?"

A lengthy debate ensued, but clear answers were few and far between.

For Labour, former West Bromwich MP and Speaker of the House, Baroness Betty Boothroyd; former Lichfield MP, Baron Bruce Grocott; and former West Bromwich East MP, Baron Peter Snape, were among those who acted to defeat the government on the key motion by 307 votes to 277.

But Lord Cormack, Wolverhampton Wanderers director Baroness Rachael Heyhoe Flint, former Sutton Coldfield MP Lord Fowler, the Earl of Shrewsbury and JCB chairman Lord Bamford, all voted to not interfere with the government plans.

Despite their long-standing criticism about the unelected chamber, opposition MPs seized on the government's defeat as a victory for democracy.

John Spellar, Labour MP for Warley, accused the Government of 'over-doing' the constitutional issue.

He said: "It is absolutely right that the Commons has supreme say on tax issues, but that would be like saying any changes to benefits whatsoever should be dealt with entirely within the Commons. This has a huge impact on a very large number of families.

"I hope the government now understand there is genuine widespread and serious concerns about the impact these changes will have.

"The government ought to listen the widespread concern about these changes rather than overreacting about supposed constitutional issues."

Peers backed two motions on Monday which delay the £4.4 billion cuts, which critics argue could deprive low-income workers of up to £1,300 a year. The government is now expected to review the rules governing the relationship between the two Houses of Parliament.

But Commons Speaker John Bercow, always quick to take centre stage, denied talk of a constitutional crisis. He said: "Nothing disorderly has occurred, no procedural impropriety."

But speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, the Chancellor George Osborne insisted he will press ahead with the changes to working tax credit and child tax credit.

David Winnick, Labour MP for Walsall North, said: "In my constituency, it is

estimated that 5,400 working families with children will lose on average some £26 a week.

"These are those in employment who receive tax credit because their wages are not sufficient on their own to bring up a family.

"If tax credits are slashed it will simply increase child poverty in Walsall."