After writing the piece in today's paper, it seems probable that Tory MPs will let Lords reform pass next week. As Richard Bacon MP puts it; the proposals are something they are just going to have to swallow.

But it also seems pretty clear that Conservatives are going to make sure the leadership knows just how much they hate the reforms. This was what Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman, the government's life sciences advisor, told me...

'At a time when the Eurozone is in meltdown, threatening our economic recovery from the worst banking crisis in our history, the Liberal Democrats' obsession with reforming the House of Lords will strike people as bizarre.

'There are some sensible reforms we could make to improve the Lords' role as a revising second chamber, but Nick Clegg's blueprint has massive constitutional implications which need extensive scrutiny, which risks tying Parliament in knots.

'Voters weren't interested in the AV reforms to the voting system and I don't believe they'll see this as a priority either.'

I think the PM may have to do a lot more in coming weeks to massage those Tory sensibilities.