Moderator: This is a response to answers the six candidates for the deputy leadership of the Labour party gave to this question: "In your view what should the role and function of a reformed House of Lords be, and will this have any consequences for the House of Commons?". The candidates answers themselves can be found here.
James Graham (London, Elect the Lords): The candidates' responses on House of Lords reform are interesting because of the level of consensus amongst all the candidates. All of them, even Hazel Blears, appear to now accept the case for a predominantly or fully elected second chamber, with two preferring the latter and another two happy with either option.
Hazel Blears' complaint that people are 'obsessed' with the composition question is ironic, since she has the least of all the candidates to say about powers. These answers demonstrate that there is clear consensus on what powers the second chamber should have, with no-one disputing the primacy of the House of Commons. The government that Ms Blears is a member of accepted the findings of Lord Cunningham's Joint Committee on Conventions (opens pdf document) which rejected codifying any existing conventions. A reformed second chamber may well be more assertive than the present House of Lords, but no-one wishes to empower it to do anything more than scrutinise and potentially delay legislation by up to a year.
While we would prefer a fully elected second chamber, and note that the House of Commons expressed a clear preference for one in March this year, we are not particularly exercised about whether the government brings forward plans for a fully elected or 80% elected chamber. However, we do feel that the plans have to be brought forward soon if we are not to lose momentum on this issue. Delaying them until after the next election, as some close to Gordon Brown have suggested (and as Labour did in both the previous parliaments), would not only make reform harder in the long run, but would undermine the new Prime Minister's attempt to portray himself as a reformer. While David Cameron's personal commitment to Lords reform is not in doubt, the vote in March showed that he can't rely on a majority of his own MPs to support their own party's policy. It is time Labour recognised that it is in a position of strength on this issue and behaved accordingly.
