Both Tory and Opposition Peers criticise the Proposed cuts to Legal Aid.

The cuts to Legal Aid that have been put forward by the Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke, in the Legal Aid, sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill continue to be strongly opposed by the Lords.

Tory Peers Lord Tebbit and Lord Newton have both voiced their concerns over the planned cuts which would remove the right to obtain legal aid from a huge range of areas - including clinical negligence, debt, housing, welfare, employment and family disputes - including some domestic violence cases.

Both Lord Tebbit and  Lord Newton are lending their support to the campaign to prevent the removal of a right to legal aid to children in clinical negligence disputes.

It is reported that the majority of Liberal Democrat Peers will be voting against the amendments put forward in the Bill.  The Bill is now at the report stage in the House of Lords and will be subject to a number of debates in the coming weeks.  Critics of the Bill are now increasingly hopeful that the stance against it being taken by the Lords will cause the Coalition Government to make serious amendments to the Bill in order to get it passed into statute.