TONY BLAIR is to push ahead with House of Lords reform by offering MPs and peers a free vote on options for an elected second chamber before Christmas.

The first elections to the House of Lords could take place at the next general election after a surprise breakthrough by the panel charged by the Prime Minister with thrashing out reform.

Voters would have the chance to elect just over 50 per cent of the Upper House under a compromise deal which many senior MPs and peers now believe will be taking shape by next autumn.

Retirement deals would be offered to many existing peers to clear the way for the new elected members.

The Joint Committee on Lords Reform will meet tomorrow to agree the first stage of the process. Members will put the finishing touches to a report proposing five different options for the percentage of peers to be elected, the issue which has bedevilled Lords reform until now.

A last-ditch bid by traditionalists to scupper reform could hold up the proposals but sources close to the 24-strong committee told The Times that the anti-reformers were looking increasingly isolated.

The Labour MP, Jack Cunningham, who is chairman of the committee, is said to be keen to agree the paper as soon as possible. It would then be put to MPs and peers for a vote.

The five options are: 100 per cent elected; 0 per cent elected; 80 per cent elected; 60 per cent elected (the recommendation of the Public Administration Committee); and 20 per cent elected (the terms of the Government’s own White Paper on reform).

One senior source close to the committee said: “I am more encouraged than I have been for a long time. It is beginning to come together.”

The Commons and the Lords are expected to vote for very different options MPs are likely to back 60 per cent while peers will go for a low option, possibly 0 per cent. It will then be up to the joint committee to thrash out a compromise, which many now believe will be 50 per cent plus one elected. This would allow the Government to bring forward a Bill based on its proposals for the 2003-4 session.

Several members of the committee believe it will be possible to elect 240 peers in three batches over 15 years, while others believe that a majority elected House of 500 members could be in place by 2009.

The paper will spell out that the will of the Commons will remain supreme. However, ministers accept that when more than half the Lords is elected it will be more assertive. “If Labour MPs want a majority elected House they had better prepare themselves for more confrontation with it,” one ministerial source said.

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