Isle of Wight 'saved' by late-night peers

Thursday, 20 January 2011 12:00 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

Parliament's upper House sat late into the night on Thursday morning as the tussle over the coalition's electoral reform plans continued.

The Lords rose from its sitting at around 03:00 GMT, just two days after continuing throughout the night on Monday and Tuesday.

Opponents of the parliamentary voting system and constituencies bill won a minor victory when an amendment preserving the Isle of Wight as a distinct constituency was passed against the government's wishes.

Ministers had proposed splitting the island into two seats, despite making exceptions for the Western Isles and the Orkney and Shetland constituencies.

The move was seen as one of a series of compromises as its February 16th deadline approaches.

The referendum on changing to the alternative vote system will not be able to take place on its planned May 5th date if the bill does not receive royal assent before that date, under Electoral Commission regulations.

Labour peers oppose the measures establishing the referendum's legal status being linked with provisions to cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

But the party's leader, Ed Miliband, backs the referendum and met with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg for private talks last night, the Guardian newspaper reported.

That raises the prospect that the ongoing tussle over the fate of the bill could be brought to a quicker end than currently seems likely.

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