Tories would scrap Department of Constitutional Affairs
Lord Strathclyde, Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords, today said that a future Conservative government would immediately scrap the Department of Constitutional Affairs.
In a speech at the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth, Lord Strathclyde said that he hoped the Lords can “promote a sensibility compromise over hunting”, but sharply criticised the legislative progress to date.
He criticised the Labour government’s plans to use the “cudgel of the Parliament Act” to push its legislation through, saying this summed up the Government’s “blunderbuss attitude to our constitution”.
Lord Strathclyde maintained: “Every time they abuse our constitution, a bit of freedom dies.”
Turning to recent experiments with postal voting, the Tory spokesman was highly critical, saying: “Once upon a time Britain was admired throughout the world for the honesty of our politics, the integrity of our institutions, the fairness of our elections.
“Today for the first time in 100 years we have widespread fears of voting fraud – a direct result of Labour forcing all-postal ballots through Parliament, ignoring countless warnings.”
Lord Strathclyde pledged: “The next Conservative government will end fiddling with our voting system. We will restore integrity and simplicity to the electoral process. And we will reaffirm the right, fought for by men and women over generations, for every British citizen to cast a secret vote in a ballot box at a polling station.
“It is a scandal Labour ever took that right away.”
Mr Blair was also accused of rarely turning up to Parliament and never listening to what his parliamentary colleagues had to say, and Lord Strathclyde argued that Number 10’s grip had got stronger while Parliament had got weaker, saying: “The my-pal-Tony system of government has never been more flagrant.”
Lord Strathclyde said: “People say there are no dividing lines in British politics. But on the constitution the dividing line is as sharp as light and dark on the face of the moon.
“A Conservative government will strengthen Parliament, uphold the powers of the Upper House and protect individual freedom.”
He pledged that a Conservative government would scrap Labour plans to “twist procedure further in favour of government”, it would not allow the House of Lords to become “just a rubber stamp for ministers” and it would not use the Parliament Act to push though legislation.
Turning his attention to the judiciary, Lord Strathclyde said that the Conservatives would scrap plans for the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and appoint a Lord Chancellor, who sits in the Lords and would not seek to abolish the office.
