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Student No. 119024892 Module Code: PL3106 3474 words
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What explains government defeats in the House of Lords?
Introduction
This research will find that the behaviour of the Crossbench group was the main reason for
government defeats in the House of Lords during the current parliamentary term. The paper will be
discussing some of the existing literature on the subject before outlining the changing context in four
areas which the current House of Lords is faced; political, appointments, the number of Peers and
changing numbers of defeats. This will be followed by framework and methodology that will be
used in the research and the analysis of the behaviour of the four parties/groups that will form the
focus of the research. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the findings of the research
before outlining further research in this area.
Literature review
The House of Lords has been neglected by political scientists in comparison to the House of
Commons (Russell and Sciara 2007, 299). However, ‘traditional’ (pre-1999) studies have examined
the relationship between the Commons and Lords during the long period of Conservative dominance
resulting from the presence of hereditary Peers (Russell and Sciara 2007, 300) noting the restraint
with which the Lords acted during periods of Labour government (Bromhead 1958; Morgan 1975).
This domination ended with the 1999 reforms (Shell 2000) and two new approaches to the discipline
emerged. The first was an examination of the relationship between the two Houses post-reform.
These studies noted the Lord’s greater confidence (Russell and Sciara 2006) and assertiveness
(Cowley 2006) resulting from the greater legitimacy the removal of most hereditary Peers brought.
This is supported with empirical evidence showing greater assertiveness of the Lords (Russell 2010)
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and a strengthening in its relationship with the Commons (Whittaker 2006). This increased
assertiveness is important when accounting for the significant impact defeats in the Upper House
have on government policy (Russell and Sciara 2008). The second approach arises from the
increased number of ‘veto players’ (Tsebelis 2002) in the Lords, resulting from the removal of the
dominant Conservative element in 1999. These studies focus on the factors ensuring government
victories in a Chamber where no majority exists and government Whips have few powers to compel
party members to vote with the government (Judge 2005, 76; Norton 2003). Where defeats are
inflicted the literature has identified two distinct ‘players’; firstly, the growing importance of the
Liberal Democrats on the opposition benches (Russell and Sciara 2007) and, secondly, the ‘subtle
and changing influence’ of the House’s Crossbenchers (Russell and Sciara 2009). This research will
utilise these final two studies to examine government defeats in the Lords during the current
parliamentary term.
Context
Political
In addition to the reforms of 1999, discussed above, there has been political change since 2010 that
has interesting ramifications. The above literature has examined behaviour in the Lords in periods of
majority government. However, the 2010 General Election returned a hung parliament leading to
the formation of a coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats (BBC
2010a; 2010b). That two of the three main party groups are now in government, in conjunction with
the increase in nominations, has had a dramatic effect on group composition in the Lords (see below
for details).
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Appointments
The rate at which Prime Minister David Cameron has appointed new Peers, and the parties
appointed to, has had a significant effect on the House’s composition. Cameron has appointed, on
average, more Lords per year – 43 – than either Tony Blair (37) or Gordon Brown (12) (Russell 2014;
House of Lords Library 2014). These figures become more significant when considering that Blair’s
number included a major restructuring in order to bring Labour numbers in line with the
Conservatives. Furthermore, 63% of Cameron’s appointments have been to government benches
(compared to 43% and 32% for Blair and Brown respectively) so altering the power balance within
the Lords (see the next section). Arguments that had Labour been in coalition government between
1997-2010 then government appointments would have been as high hold some water. However,
ceteris paribus, appointments between 1997 and 2010 would have resulted in 56% of the Peers
appointed being aligned to ‘government’ parties (authors own calculations using Russell 2014;
House of Lords Library 2014).
Numbers
The above pattern of appointment, in conjunction with a Conservatives/Liberal Democrat coalition,
has shifted the government/opposition balance in the Lords. In the final year of Brown’s
Premiership (2009-10), the Labour Government, with 211 Peers, comprised 29.9% of the House
(Sessional Statistics 2009-10). However, at the end of the 2010-12 session the percentage of
government Peers had risen to 38.9% (Sessional Statistics 2010-12). The bulk of this rise resulted
from the formation of the coalition – their joint share of Peers was 36.4% in the 2009-10 session –
rising to a current 42.1%. As expected the Conservatives have increased their number of Peers to
come in line with Labour – an increase of 42 (22.7%) – while Labour’s number has increased by 5
(2.4%). However, the group experiencing the largest proportional increase is the Liberal Democrats
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No
. of
govt
def
eats
– seeing their numbers swell by 33 (45.8%) – while the Crossbench numbers have decreased by 5
(2.7%). This research is concerned with how this changed composition has effected the reasons for
government defeats in the Lords (Sessional Statistics 2012-13; 2013-14; Parliament 2015).
Defeats
Fig.1
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
343
Number of government defeats in the House of Lords
108
45 62 72 62
245
175
100
1974-79 1979-83 1983-87 1987-92 1992-97 1997-01 2001-05 2005-2010 2010-2015 Parliamentary term
Source: Parliament 2015 (http://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-lords-faqs/lords-
govtdefeats/)
As fig.1 shows, the 1974-79 Labour government suffered over 300 defeats before an 18-year period
of Conservative government when defeats in the Lords averaged just 60 per term. However, the
1999 reforms led to sharp increases in the numbers of defeats for the Labour governments of 1997-
2010. The first two full terms after the reforms saw the governments defeated on 41% and 32% of
all Lords divisions (Parliament 2015), leading to claims of a more assertive House likely to become
more powerful in policy-making (see Russell 2010; Whittaker 2006; Russell and Sciara). However,
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government defeats in the Lords have fallen sharply post-2010 with just 21% of divisions ending in
defeat (own calculations from UCL 20151; The Public Whip 2015). Further investigation is needed to
determine whether the above factors account entirely for a reduction in defeats, and is beyond this
paper’s scope. But despite this reduction the government has still suffered 101 defeats in Lords
divisions and the rest of this paper will examine the reason for them.
Framework and Methodology
This research will follow the broad framework, albeit in a less detailed manner, laid out by Russell
and Sciara (2007) in their examination of party/group behaviour and government defeats between
1999-2005. The researchers examined behaviour within the newly reformed House in which the
Labour government, facing a large opposition, was required to secure the support (or abstention) of
other groups to avoid defeat. These groups included Labour rebels, Conservatives, Crossbenchers,
Liberal Democrats and Bishops (Russell and Sciara 2007, 305). In contrast, this research will examine
how the present government is defeated when in control of a greater number of seats (between 39-
42%). While still short of a majority, when factoring in division turnout for the Crossbenchers (11%)
and Bishops (3%) between 1999-2010, the coalition has had the potential for a de facto majority
since 2010 (Russell 2013, 109). Consequently, this research will focus on how Labour has been able
to secure government defeats in the House. Two possible ways exist to achieve this; firstly, securing
votes/abstentions from Conservative/Liberal Democrat rebels; secondly, encouraging the
Crossbenchers to vote in large enough numbers against the government. This research’s focus,
therefore, will be on the behaviour of Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Crossbench Peers,
requiring the exclusion of two groups. The first, the Bishops, averaged a turnout in divisions of just
3% between 1999-2010 and so their omission is unlikely to effect the findings (Russell 2013, 109).
The second, the ‘Other’ group – consists of members who have been left other groups, minor party
1
All ‘author’s calculations’ are from UCL (2015) unless otherwise stated.
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representatives and members of Northern Ireland parties (Russell and Sciara 2009, 34, 36). These
are often grouped with Crossbenchers for voting analysis, yet their inconsistent membership and
low numbers (Russell and Sciara 2009, 36) might present problems for a study of this length and are
therefore omitted.
This research will limit its analysis to the behaviour of parties/groups in government defeats – with
some reference to wider voting behaviour. This sharpens a limitation raised in the original research
providing a framework for this study – that of measuring influence. Defeats in divisions do not
measure the full influence groups have on governments and policy, as often Peers prefer persuasion
over forcing divisions. This results in much negotiation occurring away from the chamber as
ministers offer to review concerns rather than face confrontation in the chamber. Of course,
objections may re-raised if ministers fail to deliver, but this is hard to quantify (Russell and Sciara
2007, 302). A closer analysis of the stages that defeats occur would be needed to determine
whether changes have occurred in this area post-2010.
The remainder of this research will examine the behaviour of the four groups stated in government
defeats. All voting data for the 101 defeats have been collated and calculations made to determine
turnout, the percentage of each group’s votes for/against the government, each group’s cohesion
using the Rice Index2 and the role each particular group’s vote played in the final margin of defeat.
Due to difficulties in obtaining voting data broken down by party/group, comparisons will be made
against the average for 2010-12 or previous sessions. These will then be examined to determine
patterns of behaviour that have contributed to government defeats for each group in turn.
Parties/Groups
2
The Rice Index calculates a group’s votes ‘for’ minus votes ‘against’ before dividing the total by the total votes cast (Desposato 2005, 734).
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Labour
The average turnout of Labour Peers for government defeats was just under 66% - nearly 10
percentage points higher than the party’s average turnout for all divisions for 2010-12 (author’s
calculations; Russell 2013, 109) – with 99.1% of the party’s votes being against the government. On
only two occasions did defeats occur when more than 2 Labour Peers voted with the government.
The first saw 6 Labour members vote with the government against an amendment on Lords reform.
In a peculiar division in which only 11% of Peers voted on an unexpected, late night, motion (Lord
Norton 2010) the government was defeated 44-29 with 15 government rebels and 18 Crossbenchers
voting against the government (House of Lords Debates 2010). The second occasion was one of a
series of defeats on the Government’s Crime and Court’s Bill, which saw 16 Labour Peers voted with
the government. However, rebellions by 49 Conservative and 29 Liberal Democrats voted with 42
Crossbenchers to ensure defeat for the government (House of Lords Debates 2012). Unsurprisingly,
in government defeats voting cohesion between Labour Peers was extremely high – with a Rice
index of 99.6 over the four sessions (author’s calculations).
To summarise, government defeats for the period examined witnessed a greater number of Labour
Peers voting than average divisions, voting overwhelmingly against the government and as a very
cohesive group. The twice that party cohesion and voting discipline slipped saw a large number of
government rebels and Crossbenchers voting against the government. These results support the
behaviour of Labour Peers in previous research when attempting to ensure government victory
(Russell and Sciara 2007). However, as previously discussed, Labour does not have enough Peers to
ensure victory alone – and this paper will now examine the behaviour of the other players in
government defeats.
Conservatives
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The average Conservative turnout in government defeats was 59% (author’s calculations) – the same
as Conservative turnout for all divisions in the 2010-12 session (Russell 2013, 109) – and the
proportion of party votes for the government was 95.6% (author’s calculation). On ten occasions
more than 10 Conservative Peers voted against the government on issues including parliamentary
voting, crime and consumer rights, and six of these saw Conservative rebels number greater than 25
(UCL 2015). However, only once was a rebellion of 10+ responsible for government defeat (that is, if
the Conservative votes against had abstained then the government would have triumphed). This
was an amendment concerning whether the AV referendum would be binding if turnout was below
40% – lost by just one vote (House of Lords Debates 2011) – an issue the House conceded just nine
days later (Wintour 2011). For two further defeats Conservative rebels shared responsibility with
Liberal Democrat members3. The first, a disagreement over whether parts of the Financial Services
Bill should be committed to the whole House, rather than Grand Committee (House of Lords 2012),
and the second concerning the ‘”conscience”-type’ issue of youth detention (Russell and Sciara
2007, 302; House of Lords Debates 2014). The fact that only one of the votes in which more than
ten Conservative members rebelled suggests that Conservative Whips in the Lords were willing to
allow their members to blow off steam on issues that would have seen defeat anyway – a fact that
accounts for an average Rice index significantly lower than Labour’s at 93.2 (author’s calculation).
In summary, the turnout of Conservative Peers in government defeats does not deviate from the
party’s average in all divisions of the 2010-12 session. The percentage of votes for the government
are high, and only 1 government defeat is attributable wholly to Conservative rebels. The
Conservative Party’s Rice index is lower than the Labour Party’s which may be explained by the
willingness to allow members to vote against the government in significant numbers. However,
these ‘rebellions’ rarely (just 10%) cause government defeats.
3
The margin of defeat would have been erased had either Conservative or Liberal Democrat rebels abstained.
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Liberal Democrats
The average turnout for Liberal Democrat members of the House in governments defeats is 64%
(author’s calculations), slightly below the 66% average for all divisions in the 2010-12 session (Russell
2013, 109). The voting behaviour of Liberal Democrat Peers in government defeats undergoes a
shift after 2010-12 in regard to both their loyalty to the government and cohesion. During the first
session, Liberal Democrat Peers voted with the government 91.4% of the time, yet this figure drops
to 74.9% in the subsequent three sessions (author’s calculations). Likewise, party cohesion falls
from a Rice index of 85.75 in the 2010-12 session to just 53.6 thereafter (author’s calculations). This
is illustrated by a greater number of Liberal Democrat members voting against the government than
in support on five separate occasions between 2012 and the time of writing (author’s calculations).
However, on only one of these occasions – an amendment to include the lobbying of special advisers
in the Transparency of Lobbying Bill (House of Lords Debates 2014) – would abstentions from those
rebels have secured victory. Eleven further defeats could have been avoided had Liberal Democrat
rebels abstained; shared responsibility for two defeats – on the Financial Service Bill and juvenile
detention – is discussed above. Those of note in the remaining nine include the defeat inflicted on
government plans for elected police and crime commissioners outside of London, in what was
labelled as an example of Nick Clegg’s promised ‘muscular liberalism’ following the first year of
coalition (The Guardian, 11 May 2011). Further defeats attributable to the Liberal Democrats
occurred on the European Union and welfare reform – areas of coalition tension (author’s
calculations; UCL 2015). However, perhaps the most high profile defeat for the ‘government’ came
in 2013 over an amendment to push back boundary reforms until 2018 (BBC 2013; London Evening
Standard, 29 January 2013). The coalition partners whipped their members in different directions
(Cowley 2015, 153) and 72 Liberal Democrat Peers secured the amendment by 69 votes (House of
Lords Debates 2013).
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To summarise, although no discernible difference between Liberal Democrat turnout for defeats and
for all divisions in the 2010-12 session exists, a clear distinction in the behaviour of the party in the
Lords after the first year of the new Parliament does. After this point, marked by the government
defeat on rolling-out police and crime commissioners, votes for the government in defeats drop by
20 percentage-points and their Rice index drops by 30. This leads to two defeats that the coalition
partners share responsibility for, 10 that can be attributed to the Liberal Democrats and the split
discussed in detail above.
Crossbenchers
The Crossbench group consists of members4 who are not political aligned to a political party (Russell
and Sciara 2007, 308). Routes through which the group’s members arrive in the chamber include
the civil service, academia and the House of Lords Appointment Commission5 (for a comprehensive
list see Russell and Sciara 2007, 308). The group has, despite its potential as a key actor, been seen
as less significant than numbers suggest (Russell and Sciara 2007, 308). Previous research supports
this view, showing that between 1999-2007: 62% of Crossbencher votes in all whipped divisions
were against the government (Russell and Sciara 2009, 42), turnout for all divisions between 1999-
2010 is low (11%) (Russell 2013, 109) and with a Rice index score of 50 the group is not particularly
cohesive (Russell and Sciara 2007, 308).
However, turnout of Crossbench Peers in government defeats averaged 31.1% over the period
examined (author’s calculations) – higher than the 24% average for the group in all divisions in the
2010-12 session. Additionally, 84.8% of Crossbencher votes in government defeats were against the
government and a Rice Index of 69.7, shows a higher cohesion than the Liberal Democrats in
4
This is the definition used for this research, however, some studies include members aligned to smaller parties. 5
See House of Lords Appointment Commission (2014)
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government defeats. These factors account for the Crossbench group being attributable for 76 out
of the 101 defeats during this period
Analysis
The findings – that the Crossbench group, in conjunction with a disciplined and cohesive Labour
Party, has been the reason for a large majority of government defeats between 2010-present –
support Sciara and Russell’s (2009) assertions that the Crossbenchers are displaying an increased
and changing influence in government defeats. The behaviour of the Liberal Democrats in coalition,
despite the party’s increasing numbers in the chamber, suggests that the findings by the same
authors (2007) – the Liberal Democrats had gained a new importance – have been tempered by
entering into coalition government.
In the changed political and compositional context of the House of Lords post- 2010, the Labour and
Conservative parties have displayed unsurprising behaviour. The research found that in order to
defeat the government the Labour Party must vote in greater numbers than average and show near
perfect cohesion in voting for amendments. However, as a result Labour’s overall share of the
chamber reducing and facing an enlarged coalition government, they require the support of other
groups to ensure government defeat. Likewise, Conservative Peers voted on the side of the
government in the vast majority of government defeats and showed high cohesion. Despite
experiencing rebellions on around 10% of government defeats only once was the Party wholly
responsible for government defeat.
The two groups that are of greater interest in explaining government defeats are the Liberal
Democrats and Crossbenchers. The Liberal Democrats began their period in coalition by voting with
the government on defeats over 90% of the time and displaying relatively tight cohesion. However,
after the first term – and seemingly as a result of a conscious decision to challenge its coalition
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partner – these figures reduced significantly. Yet despite this only 10% of government defeats can be
solely attributed to the party during this period. Perhaps as a result of the interest in coalition
tension, these defeats have been widely publicised so suggest the behaviour of Liberal Democrat
Peers has been more influential than in reality. The behaviour of Crossbenchers has been the reason
for the vast majority of government defeats during this period. As a group traditionally seen as
relatively insignificant, independent and lacking coherence, the group accounting for 75% of
government defeats is surprising. This may suggest that the group views itself in a different light in
the face of a potentially dominant coalition in the Lords, but further research would be required to
examine this fully.
However, several notes of caution are sounded on these results; firstly, as discussed elsewhere
(Russell and Sciara 2007, 301-2), a purely quantitative examination fails to uncover the ‘type’ of
amendments the government was defeated on, so failing to reveal the importance of certain
defeats. Secondly, the focus on defeats may create false impressions of group behaviour – and
detailed analysis of all divisions is needed to back up the findings. Finally, this research has been
carried out within the framework of a significant reduction in the number of government defeats
compared to previous post-reform terms and, therefore, behaviour of the groups may have been
accentuated (or diminished). These issues have been beyond the scope of this research but further
examination would add to the understanding of behaviour in the Lords during times of coalition
government. Furthermore, this understanding becomes ever more important in the event of
another hung parliament (as many predict!) after the 2015 General Election.
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