Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

That is not what I said. What I said was that there was a deal in opposition between the two opposition parties about the proportion of Liberal Democrats. Under the Cook-Maclennan agreement of 1996—my noble friend Lord Maclennan is next to me and I was a member of the negotiating committee—it was a term of the agreement, among others, that having co-operated to remove the hereditary Peers, because the Liberal Democrats were 40 per cent hereditary, whereas Labour was less than 10, it was necessary to get the rough balance right with the Liberal Democrats. Robin Cook agreed that that should be so. Having then collaborated, the hereditary Peers were excluded with a cruelty that I did not support. Having done that, we expected to get back to around 40 per cent because that represented our rough balance in the previous general election, and so we waited. I am not talking about now: I am talking about at that period after Tony Blair won. Tony Blair was to be commended for the way in which he handled his own appointments. But I am saying that we were not able to get back our percentage and when the Leader of the House, the noble Baroness, Lady Jay, was asked why, she said—not publicly—to our leader, ““You see, you haven’t behaved properly. You haven’t voted with us””. It is that which we found unacceptable and which led to a falling out between the two parties. All I am saying to the noble Lord is that he gives a benign view of history. The history was not at all benign.