Plans to curb Lords 'dropped' by UK Government

Lords vote - PA

The Conservatives have reportedly decided not to go ahead with plans to curtail the powers of the House of Lords.

The Government came up with measures to water down peers' power to veto secondary legislation after a defeat on tax credit cuts. 

The proposal, part of a review from former Lords leader Lord Strathclyde, was heavily criticised when it first appeared almost a year ago. 

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A Downing St source told PoliticsHome the plan had now been "dumped" because "the world has changed".

A Number 10 spokesman would not comment, saying only that "we will publish our response in due course". 

Labour's leader in the Lords, Baroness Smith, said the apparent climbdown showed that "the Strathclyde review was an absurd overreaction to a sensible and principled challenge on tax credits".

Meanwhile Prime Minister Theresa May surprised the House of Commons yesterday after she refused to deny that Nigel Farage could be handed a peerage.

Responding to a question in PMQs from SNP MP George Kerevan, she said: “All I can say to the Honourable Gentleman, I’m afraid, is that such matters are normally never discussed in public.”