Boundaries and Lords reform: what the two parties said

The Liberal Democrats have spent the past few months building up to yesterday’s announcement that they would trash the boundary reforms following the failure of the House of Lords Reform Bill. As so much of the arguments this morning focus on whether the party is justified in voting down the changes to constituencies, I’ve taken a trip down memory lane to review the key statements from both parties from before the 2010 general election right up to this morning’s Today programme interview with Jeremy Browne. Coffee Housers can judge for themselves whether or not Lords and boundaries are linked. The Liberal Democrat manifesto:

Change politics and abolish safe seats by introducing a fair, more proportional voting system for MPs. Our preferred Single Transferable Vote system gives people the choice between candidates as well as parties. Under the new system, we will be able to reduce the number of MPs by 150.

Replace the House of Lords with a full-elected second chamber with considerably fewer members than the current House.