Blow to Tory hopes of pushing through boundary changes before next election

New legal advice given to House of Lords says Labour-Liberal Democrat alliance can prevent legislation passing before 2015
Lord Strathclyde
Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader of the Lords, has argued that delaying tactics by Labour and the Lib Dems would be out of order. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Conservative hopes of preventing a Labour-Liberal Democrat alliance from deferring plans to revise parliamentary boundaries until after the next election have been dealt a blow. New legal advice given to Labour says the delay is lawful, thus freeing Labour and Lib Dem peers to vote to scupper the reforms.

Senior Tories are locked in a high stakes battle with their coalition partners to keep alive their hope of cutting MP numbers and rejigging boundaries before 2015.

The changes could be worth 20 seats to the Tory party, making it easier for it to win an overall election majority. They have become so desperate that they have been putting out feelers to minority parties to see if they can construct a Commons majority for revising the boundaries, even though Labour and the Lib Dems are opposed.

But David Cameron has been ambushed by a decision by Lib Dem peers to join Labour and crossbenchers to press an amendment to the electoral administration bill that would defer a review by the Boundary Commission until after 2015.

Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader of the Lords, claims, on the basis of advice from parliamentary clerks, the amendment is out of order since it is not properly connected to the issues the bill is addressing.

But legal opinion from a QC, given to Labour and placed in the library of the Lords, disputes this.

The advice states the timing of Boundary Commission recommendations for changes to constituency boundaries "cannot be divorced from electoral registration" and the "conduct and administration of the next general election", and vice versa.

It also claims the review, which proposes changes to the number of parliamentary constituencies, and the Electoral Registration Act are "intertwined".

Significant changes to electoral registration, such as the "major change" to individual registration proposed "directly and inescapably impact on the current boundary review process" and the timetable for it.

It also claims changes proposed will mean that a number of voters will fall off the register, so that the boundary reviews will be "carried out on the basis of what are, effectively, inaccurate numbers".

Tory party whips know that if Strathclyde allows the amendment deferring the boundary review to be voted upon, it would be passed in the Lords by at least 50 votes. Equally, there is no clear majority in the Commons to overturn the amendment.

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