The Lords question could come back to bite Starmer

Would a Labour government replace the House of Lords with an elected second chamber of the nations and regions?

- ANDREW GRICE

It certainly sounded like it when Keir Starmer endorsed Gordon Brown's 155-page, 43-point plan this week to reform the constitution.

However, the question of what Labour would actually do if it won power is far from settled. Starmer played for time by announcing a consultation exercise on how - not whether - to implement the report. This is a holding line that masks deep Labour divisions over Brown's blueprint.

Some party figures, including some of Starmer's senior aides, oppose a "big bang" reform of the Lords, warning it would suck an incoming Labour government into a quagmire. True, the issue would dominate the parliamentary timetable and might look to voters worried about the economy and public services that Starmer was fiddling while Rome burned.

Previous attempts to shake up the Lords have run into the sand. MPs voted down all the options on the table under Tony Blair's government, although it did remove most hereditary peers. A dispute between the pro-reform Liberal Democrats and the lukewarm Conservatives almost blew up their coalition; reform was abandoned.