Labour’s assault on the historic institutions of the United Kingdom continues apace.

This morning the Sunday Telegraph splashed with the news Justice Secretary Jack Straw is on the brink of announcing plans to replace the House of Lords with a 300-member fully elected second chamber. The paper’s Political Editor Patrick Hennessy reports:

“Ministers are ready to announce their plans, which follow years of fruitless cross-party discussions and several votes in the House of Commons, in a bid to wrong-foot the Tories with polling day less than two months away. Labour’s plan is to provoke elements inside the Conservative Party to object to the reforms – which would allow it to paint David Cameron as wedded to old ideas of privilege.”

“Under the government’s proposals, members of the new chamber would be able to be subject to a US-style “recall ballot” which would disqualify them for incompetence.

The plans would see all members of the new-look assembly being directly elected – ending the system of party patronage- with polling under some form of proportional representation system taking place at the same time as general elections.

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The Telegraph is reporting that Lord Paul has repaid the £38,000 he claimed in expenses for a flat in Oxfordshire that he never stayed in.

According to Andrew Alderson:

Political sources have revealed that Lord Paul – who is one of the country’s richest men and worth an estimated £500 million – has quietly and voluntarily repaid the £38,000.

The peer has admitted that he never spent a single night at an Oxfordshire flat that he registered as his main home while claiming money in overnight expenses for a London property… Lord Paul has denied breaking the law or acting improperly despite having never staying at what he called his main home. “It’s true I never slept there.

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News is emerging that the Labour controlled Public Administration Select Committee is to launch an inquiry into the Lord Ashcroft affair.

The special one-off inquiry will be held on Thursday 18 March.

According to ITN’s Lucy Manning the three Conservative members of the committee, David Burrowes, Ian Liddell-Grainger and Charles Walker, are to boycott the session saying it’s a “political tactic motivated by narrow partisan interests”.

Speaking to ConHome’s Jonathan Isaby, David Burrowes said they will not be part of a “political circus”.

Labour have been forced to cancel a Parliamentary event after the Conservatives uncovered evidence that militant trade union Unite were planning to use the it to launch a campaign to garner support for a Labour victory at the General Election.

Parliamentary rules are clear when it comes to using facilities for party political campaigning, it not allowed.

Unite had booked a Commons Committee room, for a launch event on this evening to ‘get things moving on the campaign for a Labour win’. The campaign meeting, which would have included members of Unite and other unions, would have also been attended by Labour MPs and councillors.

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The government has won the vote in the House of Commons 365 to 187 on holding a referendum on introducing Alternative Vote system for general elections.

But even though MPs have voted for the referendum, it is highly unlikely to reach the statute book before the election given the shortage of parliamentary time available. This fact may have been what motivated a lot of Labour MPs to vote with the government, limiting the size of the rebellion and therefore not damaging Mr Brown so close to the election. continue reading

If any evidence was needed to highlight Labour’s lackluster approach to reforming the House of Commons, then look no further than a Written Ministerial Statement made by Harriet Harman earlier today.

In her statement she admitted that the government will prevent important reforms being made to the House of Commons before the general election. continue reading

This mornings papers have dedicated a substantial number of column inches to the prospect that the three Labour MPs charged with theft from the public purse; Jim Devine, David Chaytor and Elliot Morley, will receive a substantial ‘golden goodbye’ when they stand down.

The amount of money a MP can receive is dependent on their length of service, and ranges from £30-£65,000. The Taxpayers’ Alliance has calculated that Devine, Chaytor and Morley could take home a total £151,552.

According to the Press Association Legal advisers have told Speaker Bercow that they have so far been unable to find a way to withhold the resettlement grants, as the men have not been convicted of any crime.

A simple one page Bill should be tabled as soon as possible If there is nothing that can be done under the existing rules of the House, then a simple one page Bill should be tabled as soon as possible which says that any member convicted of a criminal offence relating to their time as an MP automatically forfeit all their severance pay and pension.

As it’s highly unlikely the three amigos will have their day in court before the election, the same Bill could also deal with what should happen if criminal proceedings are ongoing at the time of an election.

Again the solution is simple, the money isn’t paid until the MP is found innocent.

Next week new rules are expected to be passed in the Common’s which allow House authorities to claw back money from MPs who refuse to hand over money demanded by Sir Thomas Legg’s audit by docking their pay, allowances or grants.

If MPs want the public to trust them again, then they need to show that they understand that people will not simple accept the fact that MPs could be found guilty of defrauding the taxpayer, yet receive tens of thousands of pounds from the very same institution they stole from.

This afternoon in the House of Commons the Conservatives will introduce a new clause to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, to ensure that any future treaty that transfers powers from Parliament to the EU will be subject to a referendum.

David Cameron first signaled his intention to change the law so any further transfer of power from the UK to Brussels would require a referendum in November last year. Announcing the parties new policy in the wake of the Irish ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, he said that he would amend the 1972 European Communities Act.

Commenting on the new clause that will be debated as part of the Bills second reading, Shadow Minister for Europe Mark Francois said:

“Labour’s breaking of their election promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was an outrageous breach of trust with voters. That must never be allowed to happen again. Decisions on any future Treaty that hands over areas of power from Britain to the EU should belong to the British people.

“Today the Conservative Party will try to change Labour’s Constitutional Reform Bill so that the British people have a referendum lock on any such handover of power. If the Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties do not back our proposal then there can be only one conclusion: they want to be able to hand over more powers to the EU without the British people’s consent.”

Gordon Brown’s credibility as Prime Minister suffered a new blow as Parliamentary Questions have revealed that 12 Parliamentary Private Secretary posts remain vacant following last June’s Cabinet reshuffle, due to Labour MPs refusing to serve in Mr Brown’s Government.

Parliamentary Private Secretaries are Ministerial aides and are the ‘eyes and ears’ of their Minister, they are also expected to vote with the Government and not criticise Government policy.

These post are are normally highly desired posts as they are regarded as the first rung on the Ministerial ladder.

Since June, Mr Brown has refused to publish a list of Parliamentary Private Secretaries, merely promising one to be published “in the usual manner”.

On 14 December, in answer to Parliamentary Questions, the prime minister finally admitted that a list existed, but did not publish it. Instead he referred to the Parliamentary reference book, Vacher’s.

At the end of December 2009, a new edition of Vacher’s was published. Its pages reveal that 12 PPS posts are currently “to be appointed”.

Half of the posts are for Senior Ministers who attend the Cabinet, including the Secretary of State for International Development, the Secretary of State for Defence, the Solicitor General and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

In effect, backbench Labour MPs have refused to serve in Gordon Brown’s Government.

Francis Maude, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “Gordon Brown’s credibility diminishes by the day. The fact that twelve Ministerial aide positions remain unfilled six months on from a Cabinet reshuffle is a sign of rats deserting the sinking ship of Gordon Brown’s Government. Even Labour MPs now realise that we can’t go on like this.”

The full list of vacancies is as follows:

Lord Drayson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation*

Dawn Primarolo, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families*

Vernon Coaker, Minister of State for Schools and Learners

Rosie Winterton, Minister of State for Local Government & Regional Economic Development*

Bob Ainsworth, Secretary of State for Defence*

Phil Hope, Minister of State for Care Services

David Hanson, Minister of State for Policing, Crime and Security

Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development*

Vera Baird, Solicitor General

Liam Byrne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury*

Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary

Angela Eagle, Minister of State for Pensions and the Ageing Society

*Member of the Cabinet or has rights to attend the Cabinet

Yesterday during Business Questions shadow Commons leader Sir George Young once again raised the issue of councils delaying their election night counts until the day after the polls close with his government counterpart Harriet Harman.

“Finally, may we have a statement on the election night count? A number of senior figures, including yourself, Mr. Speaker, have said that it would be, in your words, “a travesty” for the count to be delayed by local authorities until the next day. Yesterday, no less a figure than the Government Chief Whip told his local paper that delaying the count would increase the risk of electoral fraud. Is there any doubt that having a Thursday night count is the right thing to do?”

Responding to the question Ms Marman dismissively said: “I have two concerns about election night. The first is that the count should be announced as soon as the people have voted, and the second is that it should be the right result.”

The latest survey of Returning Officers, conducted by the Electoral Commission in December, showed that 273 counts are confirmed to take place on Election Night with 53 constituencies currently planning on counting on the Friday. Crucially, 154 Returning Officers are saying they are undecided, which means they are hopefully still open to persuasion.

The government may not want to intervene to preserve the drama of election night, but many MPs do. On December 10th Labour MP Tom Harris re-tabled the Early Day Motion which he first introduced in October backing the campaign to Save General Election Night. As of today this EDM had attracted cross=party support and has been signed by 103 members of the Commons.