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Lib Dems to use House of Lords anti-Tory majority to defeat moves to sell off housing-association properties

The party will switch its Parliamentary campaigning focus to the Lords as it attempts to block a range of contentious legislation

Nigel Morris
Wednesday 23 September 2015 00:06 BST
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Tim Farron visited the Bournemouth offices of housing charity Shelter on Tuesday
Tim Farron visited the Bournemouth offices of housing charity Shelter on Tuesday

The Liberal Democrats will use their strength as part of an anti-Tory majority in the House of Lords to defeat the Government’s moves to sell off housing-association properties, the party’s leader Tim Farron will pledge.

After losing all but eight of its MPs at the general election, the party will switch its Parliamentary campaigning focus to the Lords as it attempts to block a range of contentious legislation, including tighter restrictions on trade unions.

The tactic will enrage the Conservatives, who won a narrow overall Commons majority in May but are vastly outnumbered in the unelected Lords, with 223 peers compared with 211 for Labour and 101 for the Liberal Democrats. A further 11 Lib Dem peers are scheduled to join the Upper House this autumn.

In his first conference speech as leader, Mr Farron will commit the party to exploiting its large presence in the Lords to scupper the housing sell-off.

The plans, which were contained in the Tory manifesto and signalled in the Queen’s Speech, are set to be detailed next month. Critics claim the measure will exacerbate the housing crisis by reducing the supply of affordable homes to low-income families.

The Conservatives are vastly outnumbered in the unelected Lords (Getty)

Mr Farron will tell delegates at the conference in Bournemouth that Lib Dem peers are ready to tear up the convention by which the Lords gives a fair wind to policy promises contained in an elected government’s manifesto.

“Communities up and down this country have spent 25 years building housing-association homes, picking up the pieces of Mrs Thatcher’s destruction of council housing, and we won’t allow David Cameron to destroy that work too,” he will say.

Lib Dem peers are also targeting the Trade Union Bill, which includes moves to ban workers in key public sectors from striking unless industrial action is supported by at least 40 per cent of those eligible to vote. Workers wanting to join a strike picket could be forced to identify themselves to police, carry a letter of authorisation and wear an armband.

A Lib Dem source said: “The Tories are just driven by ideology on this. They are trying to replay Mrs Thatcher’s biggest hits but things are very different today from the 1980s.”

Lord Newby, the Lib Dems’ chief whip in the Lords, told the conference: “Without trying, we beat the Government 10 times in a fortnight. This gave our group great satisfaction and I’m sure that it’s a principle and policy that we will be pursuing again.”

In his speech Mr Farron will attempt to rally the party’s spirits after its election mauling, telling members he is “determined we will return to government”.

Although he has previously distanced himself from his predecessor, Nick Clegg, he will say he is “proud of what we did in government, proud of our record and of our party”.

The conference paid tribute to the late Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy with a film dedicated to his life and career. In it, Mr Farron: “You were a hero before I met you and you became a friend once I became a Member of Parliament. I will miss you massively, we will miss you massively.”

Lib Dem songbook: Hamming it up

A song mocking lurid claims about David Cameron was unveiled by Lib Dem activists before the traditional end-of-conference party. A hastily-written composition circulating at the conference, called “The Prosciutto Affair” and sung to the tune of “English Country Garden”, begins: “If your name is Cam, you’ve been amorous with ham in an Oxford country garden.”

The “Glee Club” songbook also refers to former leader Charles Kennedy’s fight with alcohol: “Oh hear us Charlie when we ask/To share the contents of your flask.”

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