Unsurprisingly, the double defeat in the Lords on tax credits came up at Cabinet today. Baroness Stowell, Leader of the House of Lords, told the meeting that peers had broken the ‘longstanding convention’ of primacy of the Commons on financial matters. The Prime Minister reiterated his desire for a ‘rapid review’, details of which may emerge later today (once ministers have worked out what that rapid review might entail).
Ministers need to work out what it is possible to announce that ensures the same scenario doesn’t arise again when the government tries to get a new Statutory Instrument through. The changes need to be something that the Lords will approve, otherwise the government will end up in a protracted battle with the Upper House. So it would surely involve codifying the convention of the Lords not interfering with financial matters that the Commons has approved: but this in itself would require consensus on what that convention actually stretches to, and whether it covers SIs.
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