By Tim Montgomerie

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The Times has two very interesting stories this morning. The first concerns plans by members of the 2010 intake to purge the 1922 Committee (£) of its more right-wing elements. ConHome understands that the Chairman of the '22 Graham Brady is probably not in danger but other officers, including Brian Binley and Mark Pritchard, may well be challenged. We will return to this simmering issue on another occasion but the second Times story that appears on the newspaper's front page is perhaps the more interesting one...

Roland Watson, The Times' political editor, reports (£) that a group of Tory peers are ready to disrupt the Coalition's legislative programme if Cameron and Clegg press on with their plans for a largely elected Upper House:

"A group of about 20 Tories has said that it is ready to go on strike, refusing to support any government Bill while doing everything possible to obstruct reform to the upper chamber. Mr Clegg has received a separate warning from 15 Liberal Democrat peers that Lords reform, his party’s constitutional priority, will “gum up completely” Parliament for at least a year."

Lords reform was in the Tory manifesto but David Cameron suggested it would be a third term issue. The Coalition with Nick Clegg has turned it into a first term issue. Advisers to the Lib Dem leader know that reform will be time consuming but they believe that a Lords elected by proportional representation will give the party the balance of power in British politics for many years to come. That same prospect is one of the reasons why Tory MPs and peers are so opposed.