Cameron forced to grovel to peers over Stowell snub

David Cameron has got himself in trouble with the House of Lords. After promoting Baroness Stowell to replace Lord Hill as the Leader of the House of Lords in last week’s reshuffle, he reduced the job from full Cabinet role to that of a minister ‘attending Cabinet’. This includes a significant drop in salary.

While Stowell has kept quiet on the issue, it has riled many peers – to the extent that Cameron is now forced to send out grovelling letters to members who have raised concerns (you can read a full letter below).

In the letters, Cameron says that he shares the view that “the Leader of the House of Lords should, as a general rule, always be a full member of the Cabinet”.

However, he is not clear why he has reduced the significance of the role, merely saying that “it was not possible” to keep it as a Cabinet position. Cameron claims it is only a “temporary measure” and will rectify the situation if he is Prime Minister after the next election, “if no opportunity to do so has arisen over the coming nine months.”

There seems to be an implicit suggestion here that it is due to the constraints of coalition (in other words, the Lib Dems) that he has been forced to make this move, but this does not explain why the job has had full Cabinet responsibilities until now.

The move has brought widespread condemnation in the upper chamber, with Baroness (Betty) Boothroyd (the former Labour MP who sits as a cross-bencher due to her time as Commons’ Speaker) submitting a motion to the Lords that states:

“Baroness Boothroyd to move that this House welcomes the appointment of Baroness Stowell of Beeston as Leader of the House of Lords, but regrets the decision of the Prime Minister to diminish the standing of the House by failing to make her a full member of the Cabinet; and requests that the Prime Minister reconsiders this decision.”

How much support this receives will indicate the size of Cameron’s problem, and how well he has been able to deal with it so far, but we can be sure of one thing: the Lords are not happy.

The full letter is here (click to enlarge):