LIMITING POWER OF LORDS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25327, 29 October 1947, Page 7

LIMITING POWER OF LORDS

PROPOSAL DEFENDED BY MR MORRISON

“ WOULD BE AT MERCY OF TORY MAJORITY” 'Rec. 7 p.m) LONDON, October 37. He hoped the House of Lords would paua the proposed modifications in the' Parliament Act without the Government having to resort to a long procedure to overcome their present twoyear veto power, said Mr Herbert Morrison, Lord President of the Council, in a speech in his constituency, Lewisham. Mr Morrison defended the Government's. intention to amend the Parliament Act of 1011 during this session to reduce the Lords’ veto power to one year. He said that unless the Act were amended now the Labour majority in the House of Commons would be at the mercy of a Tory majority in the House of Lords. Mr Morrison admitted that the House of Lords so far in this Parliament had “in the end” given way to the will Of the elected repnfesentatives, but he criticised the Lords for resuming in the summer recess when the House of Commons was not sitting. He said that this attempt to involve the Government in a debate on economic policy in the absence pf the House of Commons had been contrary to the spirit of the Constitution.