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The Times
January 21 2000
Peers wreck Bill to curb trial by jury
BY PHILIP WEBSTER, POLITICAL EDITOR
THE House of Lords delivered an unprecedented rebuff to Tony Blair last night by wrecking a central piece of the Government's legislative programme.
On the day a royal commission left the future of the second chamber clouded in doubt, the existing House threw out a Bill seeking to cut the number of defendants who may opt for jury trial.
It was a deliberate and long-planned act of defiance by the new-look interim Lords, shorn of all but 92 hereditary peers. And eight Labour peers were among those who against the Bill, including Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, the Earl of Longford and Baroness Mallalieu.
The defeat, by a majority of 96, left the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues furious, and Mr Blair will today describe the all-party alliance that wrecked the Bill as an example of the "forces of conservatism" at work.
In a speech on modernising the public services, he will say the Government was beaten by Tories who originally backed plans to curb jury trial, Liberal Democrats, and the "lawyers' trade union".
The Bill had gone to the Lords for its first airing, which means that the defeat effectively killed it. But ministers said that another would be introduced in this parliamentary session, going first to the Commons. They would then try to force it through the Lords.
The defeat came after Lord Wakeham's 12-member commission put forward its proposals for a new second chamber. It would have some 550 members - most of them nominated by an independent Appointments Commission - who would generally serve for 15 years. There would be a balance of political opinion and no party would have an overall majority.
Lord Wakeham's commission ducked the question of how many members should be elected - but suggested 65, 87 or 197. Nor did it plump for a system to elect them.
The Government held back from a formal response to the report and all the signs were that it will take its time, but Mr Blair said he regarded its approach as "pretty sensible".
The next step will be to send the proposals to a joint committee of both houses, but no moves have yet been made to set up such a committee.
In the meantime, the interim Lords showed their muscle over the move to restrict jury trial, killing for the first time in memory a mainstream Bill before it had reached the elected House.
Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, said afterwards that the Bill would have speeded up justice and helped victims while assuring defendants a full and fair trial. It would, however, be withdrawn and a second Bill would be introduced as soon as possible
But the Earl of Strathclyde, Tory leader in the Lords, said the threat to bring the Bill back would "create a great deal of horror up and down the country". And Ann Widdecombe, the Shadow Home Secretary, urged the Government to drop the plans completely. She said: "This vote is a hugely embarrassing defeat for our hopeless Home Secretary and his half-baked Bill and one that he could have seen coming a mile off."
The Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes attacked the move to bring in a new Bill as outrageous.
