Clegg's Lords plan will fail, say top peers

Nick Clegg had no chance of getting the House of Lords to support his plans to sack them and create a new senate with 300 elected members, two senior members of his own party warned yesterday.

The two Liberal Democrat peers – one who backs the Clegg reforms, the other who opposes them – separately predicted that the Deputy Prime Minister faced inevitable defeat in the upper house.

Mr Clegg will defend his plans later today in front of a parliamentary committee.

Alex Carlile, one of the most experienced Lib Dem peers, accused Mr Clegg of having "perilously little" understanding of how the House of Lords worked.

Lord Oakeshott, who backs Mr Clegg, agreed that the Clegg reforms had no real chance of getting through the House of Lords, where about two thirds of peers would lose their privileges if it went through.