Harriet Harman to appear before reform committee
We now have a time and date for Harriet Harman's appearance before the (the Tony Wright Committee).
She and the shadow leader of the House George Young and the Liberal Democrat shadow leader, David Heath, will give evidence tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11am. In the antiseptic language of the committee press release, they will be asked to give their views "on progress made on its report".
In practice they will be attempting to extract a satisfactory explanation of the rather unusual voting procedure the government is proposing for the vote on the Wright recommendations (see posts below).
Furious e-mails have been bouncing round the Parliamentary Labour Party, and it is hard to overstate the feelings of anger and betrayal in the pro-reform camp. They continue to believe the proposed voting method, which would kick back any Wright proposal objected to by a single MP for a further debate at some future time, is nothing more than a fix cooked up by opponents within the government to frustrate the reforms. Harriet Harman retorts that, whatever the reformers say, support for their proposals is far from unanimous.
At the hearing the committee will be looking for either a change in the voting method or cast iron assurances that the debates on any proposals objected to will take place on a named date, within a week or so of the main debate on 22 February. Failing that, the government could face a short report from the Committee accusing it of trying to block its proposals by procedural manoeuvre - a presentational nightmare which would present an open goal to David Cameron.
Watch the committee live on from 11am on Wednesday.
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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