Thursday, April 13, 2006

Labour back down?

Looks like Labour maybe backing down over the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. The FT is running a story saying that Jim Murphy (the Home Office minister) has decided to ammend the wording of the more contentious parts of the Bill (basically the bit that provides absolutist powers to the Executive).

Having said this, Jim Murphy is also saying that the ammendments are being made so they "can no longer be misconstrued as an attempt by government to take a wider constitutional power". They are still trying to play down the significance of the issue. Hopefully it means the campaign against the bill is winning.

N.B props to serf for spotting this news item.

Update: According to the BBC, the ammendments will include that a "select committee of MPs will be able to veto ministers' decisions." Sounds like a victory, but if the committee is loaded in the Government's favour it's pretty meaningless.

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