Being in a coalition involves a bit of give and take. The Lib Dems have been forced to toe the Tory party line on certain issues – student funding, for example – and so it’s only fair that the Conservatives support initiatives by their coalition partners.
Or is it? It seems that Boris is urging his parliamentary colleagues to lead the largest anti-Government rebellion since the Second World War over plans to reform the House of Lords. Keen to support Nick Clegg and their coalition partners, Bozza wrote: “This plan is a bunch of tidy-minded Lib Dem nonsense. It would create a new, grandiose, expensive and unnecessary class of political hack. Clegg’s scheme needs to be liquidated, vaporised and generally terminated with extreme prejudice.”
Wow. It’s great to see that the Mayor is on the side of the government, who are supporting Mr Clegg’s plans. Ahem.
The Daily Mail reports that ‘under draft proposals, the current House of Lords – on course to have more than 1,000 members – will be replaced with a 300 member chamber, 80 per cent of whom would be elected for single 15-year terms.’
And, it seems that Bozza has a fair bit of support within his own party. Up to 100 Tory MPs are understood to be considering voting against the legislation and if more than 95 do so, the rebellion would beat the record number that opposed John Major’s gun control legislation in 1996.
A Tory source said: “There is going to blood on the floor and the walls and the ceiling. But we have to show some good faith on this issue in the Coalition and that is what we are doing.”
Well, it’s what some of you are doing. Not the Mayor, obv.