Will promised reform be delivered?
Standing in at prime minister's questions yesterday, the Commons Leader Harriet Harman promised legislation to ensure all members of Parliament, in the Commons or (most particularly) in the Lords, were resident in the UK for tax purposes.
Yes, the long-rumbling row about the tax status of vice-chairman, Lord Ashcroft, has surfaced again. As the key funder of the Tories' impressively-organised target seats programme, funding on-the-ground campaigning in the most vulnerable Labour and Lib Dem seats, Lord Ashcroft attracts little affection on the government benches, and a lot of Labour MPs would love to take a pop at him.
To much Labour amusement (and not a little gloating) the Conservatives put down an amendment to the which purported to clamp down on non-doms, but which would not have caught Lord Ashcroft, if he is indeed a non-dom (he has never confirmed his tax status, one way or another).
If Ms Harman and the government are serious about changing the law, their chance could come quite soon, because Labour awkward-squaddie Gordon Prentice and 31 others have tabled what he insists is "" amendment to the Constitutional Reform Bill, to disqualify non-domiciled MPs and peers from serving in Parliament.
At some point in the new year, the Commons will resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole House (the usual method of giving detailed consideration to constitutional measures) to crawl through the fine detail of the bill, and Mr Prentice's amendment could be voted on then. Given the new Mr Speaker's enthusiasm for taking more backbench amendments and motions, its chances of being debated could be pretty good.
Or not. Mr Prentice suspects that the government plans to amend a different bill, the Draft House of Lords Bill, on the argument that it wants all proposed changes to the working of the Lords to be discussed together in one big economy package, rather than have them introduced piecemeal in odd bills here and there. For Mr Prentice, the snag is the House of Lords Bill is mere draft legislation, which doesn't have a prayer of becoming law before the next election - a purely symbolic exercise. Government sources say they'll definitely legislate - but they want to be sure whatever they do is technically watertight. And Downing Street says the Constitutional Reform Bill is a "possible vehicle". Watch this space.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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