Lords defy MPs on all-postal vote

All-postal voting trials have already happened in smaller areas

Peers have inflicted a fourth defeat on government plans to hold all-postal ballots in key June elections.

The move comes just a day after MPs overturned a previous vote by peers to limit a pilot scheme to two regions and not four as preferred by ministers.

Now the Upper House has backed a Lib Dem amendment calling for the trial to be held in three regions.

Those are the East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North East. The vote excludes the North West.

Ministers want to pass the legislation in time for ballots to be sent out for the local and European polls.

On Wednesday Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott branded peers' defiance "totally unacceptable".

MPs went on to vote in favour of extending the pilot to the four regions but still ran into Lords opposition on Thursday.

Parliamentary ping pong

The move was seen as a challenge to peers with time running out for electoral registration officers to make the necessary preparations.

Mr Prescott said: "It should not be up to unelected people to make decisions; we have greater moral authority to make decisions about planning and we are saying it should be four of those regions."

Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger has written to Mr Prescott to advise against the plan to pilot the scheme in all four regions although he backed a possible extension to Yorkshire and Humberside.

Mr Younger said: "We not persuaded of the merits of piloting in four regions."

Fraud worries were among the concerns being raised by Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers in last Thursday's debate.