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Professor Iain McLean discusses the Tax Credit defeat in the House of Lords

Iain McLean was interviewed on the Breakfast show of BBC Radio 5 Live (27 October) about the UK Government's 'Statutory Instrument' recently rejected by the House of Lords that would have greatly diminished the tax credits available to low income families.


Iain gave his interpretation of Chancellor George Osborne's reaction to this defeat, and said that although the Government has grounds to object to one of the Lords' motions (on the basis that the Lords cannot overule Commons' decisions on finance) they have perhaps less grounds than they claim.

When asked about whether the Government might decide to 'flood' the House of Lords with Conservative peers, Iain said that it was unlikely they would take on such an expensive and contentious fight, and that Prime Minister Cameron probably had "bigger fish to fry".

The full interview can be heard here (at 8m 24s): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06k9w93