Government retreats over House of Lords reform as coalition tensions grow

The UK Government has retreated over the Lib Dem-led plans to reform the Upper House.

The Sun's Kevin Schofield, former Lib Dem special adviser Sam Ghibaldan and Times journalist Lorraine Davidson were in the Scotland Tonight studio on Tuesday to discuss what this could mean for the future of the coalition.

Sam Ghibaldan said: “It’s clearly in a very difficult place. There’s absolutely no doubt that tensions are going to be extremely high, that there's going to be all sorts of phone calls, accusations, difficult conversations going on and that's just tonight.

"The real issue is going to be over the next few weeks and months and frankly this lack of trust that's now going to exist between the Liberal Democrats in particular and their view of the Conservatives is going to work its way through the government machine.

"It's not just about this issue"

He added: "I think Nick Clegg is clearly embarrassed but I think that one of the real issues here is that David Cameron’s leadership is on the line as well."

And speaking of the atmosphere in Westminster Kevin Schofield said that is was "quite fraught".

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