The fifth defeat of the British government's European Parliamentary Elections Bill in the House of Lords last night set the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, on a collision course with the Tories, as he accused the party of wrapping itself in the "ermine of hereditary peers".
In an act of defiance unprecedented in recent times, the Lords voted by 212 to 183, a majority of 29, to reject the government's preferred "closed list" system, under which electors vote for a party, not an individual candidate.
The peers want an open-list system whereby electors vote for a candidate or individual rather than a party. The government is prepared to use the defeat of the Bill as a weapon in its plans to abolish the voting rights of hereditary peers. The government could force the legislation through during the next parliamentary session by invoking the Parliament Act, which compels the Lords to accept legislation it has opposed in the previous session. However, the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said that even so, there would not be sufficient time to introduce legislation before the European elections.
After the provocative show of strength by Conservative peers in the Lords, defeating the Bill for the fourth time on Tuesday, Mr Blair was in no mood for more Tory bravado when he entered the Commons for Question Time.
Challenged by the Tory leader, Mr William Hague, to accept that "independent opinion" was against a closed-list system, Mr Blair declined, saying that only 21 of 261 peers who voted against the Bill were not hereditary peers or Tories: "It is their in-built Tory majority, three to one in the House of Lords, which means whatever the election result they can use it to overturn the will of the House of Commons. That's not democracy."
As MPs returned the Bill to the Lords to face its fifth defeat last night, Mr Blair told MPs: "I prefer the support of people elected by the people, not hereditary peers." Pointing to the Tories, he added: "They count the hereditary peers more important than people who are democratically elected."