The Conservatives will not ‘suspend’ the House of Lords, but neither will they reform it

The government’s plans to cut tax credits might just be threatened with a ‘fatal motion’ in the House of Lords next week. Unnamed ministers have threatened peers in turn with suspension. Richard Reid explains how the Lords can get involved in statutory instruments. He argues that this is another case where peers must walk a fine line between being neither a government ‘lap-dog’ nor a serious obstruction of an elected government. Whatever happens, it seems highly unlikely that the Conservatives will initiate any kind of constitutional change