LABOURING UNDER PEER PRESSURE

LABOUR'S efforts to improve the lives of everyday people are being delayed by privileged hereditary peers trying to save their own skin, it is claimed.

- BY ALEXANDER BROWN Assistant Political Editor

The party made a manifesto pledge to axe the 92 hereditary peers.

But the abolition bill has been hit with more than 100 amendments in the House of Lords - two longer than the bill itself, most requiring debate.

They have come largely from Tory peers, delaying this and other Government legislation.

It has led to the planning and infrastructure bill being stuck in committee since July.

A ban on tobacco sales to people born after January 1 2009 has also stalled.