Clegg: PM must cancel Recess to implement political reform

The Prime Minister today outlined a range of urgent measures to clean up Parliament. Nick Clegg described the reforms as a "deathbed conversion to political reform".

Nick Clegg's statement in full.

I welcome this deathbed conversion to political reform from the man who has blocked change at almost every opportunity for the last twelve years.

Everyone knows the Labour party will lose the next General Election. So any reforms must be in place before the election if they are to mean anything at all. Anything else would be a betrayal of the British people, who are angry and demanding we change our rotten political system for good.

Doesn't he see this is no time for more committees, more reviews and more consultation - we've been debating these issues for decades - isn't it now time to get things done?

I strongly welcome the Prime Minister's commitment to moving towards an elected House of Lords.

But will the Prime Minister give us a date by which this reform will be complete? We've already voted on it in this place: there should be no more delay.

I also strongly welcome the move towards a Parliamentary Standards Authority and a MPs Code of Conduct. These changes should be implemented immediately with no more delay.

So will he ask this House to forego its summer recess so that we can push through all the necessary changes to clean up politics?

And will he make sure his immediate proposals include the right for people to sack their MP if it has been shown that they have done something seriously wrong?

I am dismayed that the Prime Minister is completely silent on the issue of party funding. How on earth can he possibly justify it? We cannot allow our politics to go the way of America's, where elections have become a contest of advertising budgets, not ideas.

Why delay when he could just implement the Hayden Phillips recommendations in the Party Funding Bill that's already being debated in another place? The way forward's been agreed - so will he now act?

Turning to electoral reform, I welcome any movement away from our discredited system. A system which gives his government untrammelled power when only one in five people voted for them. A system which gives MPs safe seats for life. As Robin Cook recognised, as his new Home Secretary realises, this can't go on.

So why is he seeking to restart a debate on electoral reform? We've had the debate. Roy Jenkins' report, the independent Power Inquiry. We can't afford to wait for a cross-party consensus because the Conservatives will never want to change this cosy Westminster stitch-up.

We don't need to wait for his Cabinet to make its mind up. It's not up to them to decide how our democracy works. People should now be given a say. So will the Prime Minister now call a referendum, this Autumn, to give people a choice? A choice between the bankrupt system we have now. The timid option of Alternative Vote, a baby step in the right direction. And serious proposals for reform like Roy Jenkins' AV+ or better still the Single Transferable Vote?

He has nothing to lose. This is no time for his trademark timidity. Just get on with it. Will he now cancel the recess? Pass the legislation we need? And give people the say they deserve?