The government suffered three important defeats to its Trade Union Bill in the House of Lords on the issues of balloting mechanisms, facility time and political funding. Under these amendments, e-balloting would be piloted, cuts to facility time reversed and reductions in political funding to the Labour Party halted. The Lords voted to insert amendments into the Bill which the government tried to resist. The Bill will now return to the House of Commons for debate on its current, amended form. If the House of Commons delete the Lords’ amendments, the Bill will still need to go back to the Lords again.
The government has suffered an important defeat on its Trade Union Bill in the House of Lords. In a series of votes on three amendments to the Bill, members of the House of Lords (called peers) inserted changes to the Bill. The members did so after the Bill had been extensively discussed on the floor of the House and after the Bill having passed through its committee and report stages.
The three amendments concern balloting mechanisms, facility time and political funding. On balloting, the Lords voted by 320-181 to commission an independent review including piloting electronic ballots for strike and industrial action.
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