Confidence and supply
Speaking on the BBC World Service (audio clip here), Frank Field MP (Lab, Birkenhead) said:
With this budget coming up [...] if we don’t get a satisfactory deal I think there’s enough members on the Labour back benches who will, with others, block the budget and that will make his position intolerable at that stage.
If the budget were blocked, it would mean the government had lost supply. I believe I’m correct in saying that the last time a sitting government in the UK lost supply (as opposed to confidence) was 1909 when the Tory majority in the Lords (this being prior to the convention that followed the People’s Budget that prevents the Lords from delaying money bills for more than a month) refused to pass David Lloyd George’s budget. The result was a constitutional crisis. While the outcome was positive in the end, it was by no means assured. Mr Field is playing for high stakes indeed. Given that Mr Darling has written to the Treasury Select Committee outlining his proposals to help people adversely affected by scrapping the 10p rate and that detailed proposals are being worked out, it seems that what Mr Field thinks is the ace of trumps may turn out to be the two.
xD.
