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Elected senate would replace House of Lords under Labour | Elected senate would replace House of Lords under Labour |
(about 7 hours later) | |
Labour would replace the House of Lords with an elected senate if the party won next May's general election, party leader Ed Miliband has said. | |
He told a conference in Blackpool on Saturday the current system "fails to represent large parts of the UK". | |
Senators would be elected from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions instead of from constituencies like MPs. | Senators would be elected from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions instead of from constituencies like MPs. |
This will give the senate a "clearly defined different role", Labour says. | This will give the senate a "clearly defined different role", Labour says. |
Mr Miliband said the issue was not just constitutional, but economic, social and one of fairness. | |
'A Britain that works for all' | |
He added: "We need to do so much more to reverse a century of centralisation that we've seen in our country. | |
"The House of Lords, is one of the biggest pieces of unfinished business in our constitution. | |
"The north-west has nearly the same population as London, but five times more members of the House of Lords are from London than from the North West. | |
"London has more members in the House of Lords than the east Midlands, west Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland, the north east and Yorkshire and Humber added together. | |
"No wonder the recovery isn't working for most parts of Britain when the voices of most parts of Britain aren't being heard." | |
"It's time to reform the way we're governed, it's time every part of our country had a voice at the heart of our politics, it's time to have a senate of the nations and regions which serves our whole country so that we can truly build a Britain that works for all and not just for some." | |
'Lip service' | |
But the Liberal Democrats have accused Labour of joining forces with Conservative MPs two years ago to wreck their plans to reform the Lords. | |
The Liberal Democrats wanted to change the make-up of the Lords by seeing 80% of peers elected and the total number of members halved to 450. | |
Lib Dem deputy leader Sir Malcolm Bruce said: "Ed Miliband partnered up with backbench Tories to destroy the best chance this country has had to reform the Lords. | |
"We could have given the UK greater representation in Parliament, but when presented with the chance, he bottled it; turned his back and ran. | |
"This is simply lip service from a Labour party who have no intention of actually delivering". | |
Mr Miliband's announcement is part of a wider effort by Labour to pursue a policy of devolving power from Westminster. | |
He has said he would like a "constitutional convention" after the elections to discuss devolution plans for England. |