Let’s forget for a minute about the Lib Dems and their dire threats of ‘consequences’ for the failure of the Lords Reform Bill and focus on the Conservative party. David Cameron has failed to convince his party to support the legislation. He said he needed the summer to try to win the rebels round before he tabled a new programme motion for the Bill, and before the summer is even out, he has decided that he can’t do it.
This isn’t just about a hardcore of Conservative MPs who are viscerally opposed to Lords reform, though. There are those who would always have opposed it, but many others who might have been persuaded. There’s a sense that the Prime Minister tried hard towards the end of the negotiations, but by then it was just too late. Backbenchers are telling me today that it’s as much about Cameron’s party management skills as it is anything else.
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