London The British government turned a technical defeat into victory in the House of Lords last night by using the Parliament Act to introduce a closed list system of PR voting for the next European Parliament elections in June.
Tory peers had made a final act of defiance over changes to the voting system when they rejected the second reading of the European Parliamentary Elections Bill by 167 votes to 73, majority 94. But the government announced that it was invoking the Parliament Act, used only twice since the war, to ensure the measure becomes law.