Blair faces mass defiance
Tony Blair today set the Government on a rocky road to the next election as he unveiled his most controversial Commons programme yet.
The Queen's Speech , crammed with no fewer than 30 named Bills, drew fury from the Lords, predictable hostility from the Tories, and a message of mass defiance from rebel Labour MPs.
On the first day of the new session, well over 100 Labour MPs were set to sign a Commons motion condemning plans to push through university top-up fees.
The rebels include a strong contingent of former Cabinet ministers, reinforced this week by Robin Cook and Clare Short.
The leading mutineers said they believed the number signing the protest could eventually rise to 180 or more - leaving Mr Blair staring defeat in the face.
There was instant trouble, too, at an angry meeting of Labour backbenchers this morning when MPs demanded to know why the longpromised move to outlaw hunting was not in today's list.
The Leader of the Commons, Peter Hain, told a string of protesters that the measure would be brought forward later in the session and promised that Mr Blair would make that clear later today.
But that failed to allay the suspicions of many that the Government was planning to dodge a pledge which for some MPs has become a key issue. One said: "It's not about hunting, it's about trust."
The extraordinary pre-emptive strikes were only part of a string of alarm signals as the Government unveiled a programme which will lock Mr Blair in battle on all fronts.
The Lords were threatening a "scorched-earth" policy of noncooperation with the plans to remove the remaining 92 hereditary peers.
Their anger at proposals for a wholly appointed upper house with no elected members was shared by the Tories, Liberal Democrats and a substantial number of Labour MPs.
Senior legal figures were also voicing concern at plans to do away with the present system of law lords as well as the historic role of the Lord Chancellor, to be replaced with a supreme court.
Human rights groups, again backed by substantial numbers of Labour MPs, were up in arms over proposals to deny benefits to failed asylum seekers who refused to return home. The full
