Electoral Reform review a huge anti-climax says Clegg

11.02.39pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 24th Jan 2008

Reform of the way the House of Commons is elected should be delayed until after the House of Lords has been modernised, the government said today. Following the long-awaited publication of the government's review of UK voting systems, the Ministry of Justice said it would be "premature" to reform Westminster elections while debate over the future of the House of Lords is ongoing.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said "As anti-climaxes go this is going to take some beating. It takes a peculiar kind of genius for ministers to spend a decade deciding what to do with our voting system before reaching the conclusion that we should wait a bit longer. Our political system is broken, but the Government seems happy to let it stay that way. Both the Labour and Conservative parties are happy to talk about getting people involved in politics but refuse to tackle the fundamental issue of electoral reform."