David Cameron is set to announce plans to curtail the powers of the House of Lords, following the peers’ decision in October to block cuts to tax credits for the lowest paid.
A government-commissioned review authored by the Tory grandee Lord Strathclyde is expected to recommend that the upper house should lose its power to veto new regulations known as statutory instruments.
At present all legislation can go back and forth – also known as “ping pong” – between the Lords and the Commons until an issue is resolved.
The attempt to curb the powers of the upper chamber comes after Labour and Liberal Democrat peers infuriated ministers in October by blocking the government’s tax credit cuts and forcing George Osborne, the Chancellor, to rethink his proposals.
Ministers accused peers of ignoring the long-established convention that they did not block financial measures which had been passed by the Commons.
David Cameron then responded to the showdown by asking Lord Strathclyde to conduct a review on the powers of the House of Lords.
Labour's leader in the Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon said: "Labour will, of course, consider the finer details of Lord Strathclyde's report, but I'm still not convinced there was a problem there in the first place.
"As most people at Parliament know, the Government lost a vote on tax credits and in a massive over-reaction have decided to try and change the rules of the game.
"That looked churlish at the time and it feels no different now."
Additional reporting by PA
