Clegg: we will use Parliament Act to ensure Lords is reformed

In a speech to the Demos think tank today, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will use some particularly robust language about seeing through House of Lords reform:

There is a typical Westminster village cynicism that Lords reform is never going to happen because it has not happened in 100 years. I have no doubt that the opponents in the House of Lords will use every wily trick in the trade to circumvent what is a perfectly normal and long overdue change to a legislature that is not transparent and not democratically accountable to the people…

There should be no doubt about our determination. It was in the coalition agreement to do this. The prime minister has been very clear. George Osborne has been clear and the PM himself has said the will of the Commons will prevail.

As The Guardian goes on to report:

He said the government would use the Parliament Act to force the bill through the Lords if peers, as expected, reject all reform, but said: “I hope it does not need to come to that. I hope with a bit of good will, we can get some cross-party momentum on this.”