Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Cranborne: My behaviour was outrageous. Hague: you're fired

Andrew Grice,Colin Brown
Thursday 03 December 1998 00:02 GMT
Comments

THE TORY party in the House of Lords was convulsed by divisions last night as Lord Cranborne, its leader in the Lords, was sacked by William Hague for negotiating a secret deal with Tony Blair to grant a reprieve to 91 hereditary peers.

Mr Hague attempted to show the slap of firm leadership by sacking Lord Cranborne for negotiating with Mr Blair behind his back, but it backfired disastrously when it brought his party in the Lords close to breaking point.

Last night, the whole of the Tory front bench in the Lords offered to resign in loyalty to Lord Cranborne. In his biggest crisis since he became leader, Mr Hague refused to accept their resignations, he disclosed, but he is still facing trouble holding the peers together. Lord Fraser, Lord Cranborne's deputy, resigned from the front bench, and there was speculation that at least two Tory peers had resigned the whip in protest to join the cross benches.

In a further twist of the knife into Mr Hague's leadership, the Tory leader was forced last night into an extraordinary concession by his own peers to allow them to vote for the deal when it comes before the Lords in the new year. That concession was wrung out of Mr Hague by Lord Strathclyde, the former chief whip in the Lords, before he was prepared to accept Mr Hague's offer to replace Lord Cranborne, as Tory leader of the Lords. It is understood that Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish turned down the offer of Lord Cranborne's job.

Mr Hague appointed Lord Strathclyde, the former Tory chief whip and an ally of Lord Cranborne, as the new Conservative leader of the Lords to halt threats of a mass defection to the cross-benches by Lord Cranborne's supporters. But questions were being asked about Mr Hague's judgement, after he stunned Westminster by agreeing to allow the Tory peers to vote for the deal which had ended in Lord Cranborne's resignation.

Challenged on BBC television's Newsnight to explain why, in that case, he had sacked Lord Cranborne, Mr Hague said: "What I am not in favour of is their overall approach to the House of Lords reform."

He said Lord Cranborne "has set out to agree a deal which would constrain the freedom of the Opposition in other ways. It would mean the Conservative Party would be signed up to the Government's overall approach".

Lord Cranborne last night appealed to peers not to defect and said Mr Hague had been right to sack him. "I behaved outrageously," he said.

But he stood by his judgement that the deal should have been accepted. "In a conflict between loyalty to the party and this House, my judgement must be about what I think is best for this House. I think it is a glorious opportunity to show Blair up for what he is - I was seduced by that thought."

Mr Hague, who secured the backing of Tory MPs at a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, said Lord Cranborne's deal would have played into government hands. "The Conservative Party would have been denied the opportunity to put amendments and other suggestions. It would have been wrong for Parliament and for the country to do it. He did it without my authority and had to go," he said.

In an exchange of letters with Lord Cranborne, Mr Hague said: "I took this decision with a heavy heart. It is a matter of deep regret to me that today's differences should have arisen."

Tory MPs angrily accused Lord Cranborne of taking "30 pieces of silver" to protect his own skin as a hereditary peer. But Tory peers may deal a further blow to Mr Hague's credibility by voting in favour of the deal when the Lords Reform Bill goes through the upper chamber.

The proposed agreement had been discussed behind the scenes for several months and included meetings between Lord Cranborne and Mr Blair within the past two weeks. But Mr Hague's allies accused Lord Cranborne of "freelancing" without his authority.

The secret talks emerged in extraordinary scenes during Prime Minister's question time yesterday, when Mr Blair and Mr Hague clashed over the breakdown of the negotiations.

Under a U-turn backed by Mr Blair, 91 hereditaries would have survived when the other 650 lose their right to speak and vote in the Lords, preventing a year of "guerrilla warfare" over reform of the second chamber. The 91 would remain until the Government implemented stage two of its reforms, turning it into a partly elected chamber within several years.

"Lord Cranborne tried to bounce the party into accepting a deal which it would not accept," Mr Hague's spokesman said.

Lord Cranborne said he had been "sacked for running in like an ill-trained spaniel" over the row with Mr Hague.

Some MPs were privately worried the Tory leader would be blamed for scuppering an attempt to reach consensus on Lords reform. "The hereditaries want to find a way of dying with dignity, but Mr Hague is the only person who wants them to die in the ditch," said a Liberal Democrat.

Downing Street said the consensus would have freed up more parliamentary time and allowed the Government to introduce other measures in the current session, including the postponed plans to set up a food standards agency and a strategic rail authority. In return, the Government would have speeded up its stage two reform plan.

Talks on the agreement involved Lord Cranborne, Mr Blair, Lord Irvine of Lairg - the Lord Chancellor, and Baroness Jay, the leader of the Lords. The cross-bench peers played a pivotal role and announced their compromise plan yesterday, unaware that Mr Hague had torpedoed it minutes earlier.

Lord Weatherill, the former Commons speaker who acts as convener of the cross-benchers, said he would be disappointed if the deal they had brokered was rejected.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in