An article in last weeks Times has indicated that ‘Brown will put Lords reform on the back burner’.

For Gordon Brown, a man on the cusp of becoming Prime Minister, a man who has passionately talked about delivering a ‘new constitutional settlement’ for the UK then surely to stall now is conceding ground to the Tories? On one clear issue that the Labour party can put some distance between the Conservative and itself Labour can ill afford to back down. A Tory administration would never push through Lords reform, no Tory leader would risk splitting their vote to get this through – so we know it will only happen under a progressive Labour government.

We need to push this to a vote before the next general election – not fudge the issue with vague manifesto commitments. This is exactly what happened last time, we’ve had a parliamentary committee meeting behind closed doors led by Jack Straw tasked to come up with proposals for the 80% and 100% elected options – why expend the effort only to stall and take no further action when the momentum is building. We don’t need more commitments and words that come to nothing – the mandate is emphatically there, the commons has spoken, the people back reform and so does the Labour party.

With five out of six deputy leadership candidates now backing the Campaign for a Democratic Upper House and a commitment to reforming the House of Lords at the earliest opportunity the momentum is building for progress to be made. For Gordon it’s a win win situation. Yes we all agree there is a lot more to be done, there is a debate to be had over the composition and the method of election, but this is no reason at all to put it off and do nothing, again.

The debate over the Lords has raged on for a long time, in the Labour party it has been a debate lasting a century. Those 100 hundred years have seen us move from supporting the outright abolition, to now recognising the useful scrutinising role of a second chamber and the enhanced democracy this can help deliver; but always there has been a desire to reform it. Brown should move to set these reforms in motion at the earliest opportunity, the debate over the wider constitutional settlement is still to be had – But Lords reform is no longer a debate – there is a massive consensus that reform should be made – reforming the Lords is unfinished business. The argument that the Lords will stall the process is disingenuous – that, is exactly the reason it needs to be started sooner rather then later. It needs to be finished – and proposals need to be brought before the House of Commons before the next General Election.

So Gordon, with five of your potential deputies wanting to move ahead with reform as soon as possible, with public opinion massively supporting reform, and with you in your own words supporting reform: ‘As far as the House of Lords is concerned 80% elected is how I voted’ Lets take the progressive route, the Labour route, the way that Labour been committed to for 100 years to clear, lets do it Gordon, do it for Britain.