Ennobled opponents prepare to disrupt Cameron's plans

After five years of coalition government and compromise, David Cameron's Conservatives will resume business in the House of Commons with their first outright majority for 18 years and a mandate to implement their manifesto in full.

But at the other end of the palace of Westminster, ennobled opponents of the administration are preparing to disrupt those plans: Labour and the Liberal Democrats may have lost 76 seats in the House of Commons, but in the upper chamber the losers of the election have the upper hand.

There are 90 more Labour and Lib Dem peers on the opposition benches than the government ones: an advantage that could prove one of Mr Cameron's biggest problems of the parliament.

Of the 779 peers in the Lords, the Conservatives have 224, against 213 on the Labour benches, 101 Lib Dems and 178 cross-benchers who are not affiliated to any party and vote as they please.

Records from the past two parliaments show Labour's majority government in 2005-2010 fared less well in the House of Lords than the coalition: the Blair/Brown administration was defeated on 175 occasions, against 103 times for the coalition.

One of the main Lib Dem aims of the last parliament was to reform the House of Lords. But this was thwarted by Conservative rebels, who blocked attempts by their coalition partner to overhaul the upper house and create an 80 per cent elected chamber with members serving 15-year non-renewable terms.

"David Cameron will rue the day he screwed up reforming the House of Lords," said Baroness Grender, former head of communications for the Lib Dems and a life peer. "Anyone bellyaching about an unrepresentative House of Lords taking on the prime minister needs to remind him of that."

Peers have a constitutional duty under the Salisbury Convention not to oppose government legislation promised in an election manifesto. The doctrine was devised after Labour's landslide election victory in 1945 to protect Clement Attlee's Labour administration against the then-inbuilt Conservative majority in the Lords - there were only 16 Labour peers at the time - and allow it to deliver its nationalisation and welfare state programme.

"The key point is that unlike the past five years we have manifesto cover for our bills. So the convention will apply," said one Conservative peer.

Ten Downing Street said: "We are very hopeful we will be able to get our legislation through and we are focused on our manifesto commitments. The Salisbury doctrine is very well established to ensure a government can deliver its manifesto."

But peers on the Labour and Lib Dem benches argue there is still plenty of scope to frustrate the Conservatives, particularly in areas where policies were not spelt out in detail, such as the government's commitment to finding £12bn of welfare savings.

"It will be difficult for Cameron," said one Labour peer. "The Lords will go for the most controversial parts of each bill, particularly if there is strong support from independents for amendments on issues to do with fairness or civil rights or constitutional issues. They will go for issues were there might be a Tory split - the British bill of rights or welfare reform - and table amendments to exacerbate those rifts."

Another Labour figure in the Lords said the party intended to home in on questions that resonate with the public - such as cuts to legal aid and welfare - because these tend to raise the interest of cross-benchers.

"On legal aid, the government was defeated 16 or 17 times in the Lords, on the welfare bill 13 times - so we succeeded in taking some of the sharp edges off these bills."

The Lords will not throw out bills pertaining to manifesto commitments but where they have scope, the upper house will look to make amendments that could radically change bills.

A Labour figure also said peers would watching to make sure the Conservatives did not attempt to push through parts of bills they were defeated on in the last session.

"There will be rebellions in the House of Commons but they will be rare. I think government defeats in the House of Lords will be more regular," said Lord Newby, the Lib Dem peer.

"Having spent five years restraining our colleagues on the Lib Dem side they are now approaching with some glee being unrestrained in promoting the things they believe in. I am glad I am not on the Tory side."

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