Blog: Very few Lords-a-leaping around the Palace of Westminster this week as sleep deprivation kicked in following the marathon sitting on the Bill to usher in a referendum on the voting system and cut the number of MPs in the Commons, writes John Hipwood.

A picture of a weary looking Bruce Grocott speaking in the House of Lords appeared in newspapers on Wednesday with peers Lord (Robert) Winston and Lord (Neil) Kinnock asleep or on the verge of nodding off.

Their sleepy state was not necessarily an unconcious comment on their Labour colleague’s speech, the clue being in the bottom left-hand corner with the clock showing 07.11 approaching dawn on Tuesday as the House of Lords sleepwalked on with its all-night sitting. The session eventually lasted 21 hours, and Lord Grocott said he thought tohimself: “This is where I came in. All-night sittings were commonplace in the Commons when the Labour government didn’t have a majority in the 1970s.

“But sleepless nights are harder to take when you are 70 than when you are 33,” said the former Wrekin and Telford MP.

The Government Bill which has caused so much controversy and led to the extremely rare all-night sitting in the second chamber not only paves the way for the proposed referendum on May 5 on changing the voting system for Westminster elections, but also proposes reducing the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

“This Bill should be called the Increasing the Size of Constituencies Bill as far as I’m concerned. I have real personal experience of what it is like to represent a consituency which is too big,” said Lord Grocott.

“When I was MP for The Wrekin, I had 90,558 constituents. That was cut to56,558 following the creation of the additional seat of Telford in 1992.

“Shropshire had five instead of four MPs, and this was welcomed across the political spectrum. It meant I could do a better job for my constituents.

“Under the Government’s proposals, the number of MPs would undoubtedly go back to four, there are to be no local inquiries, no proper public consultation,” said Lord Grocott.

The House of Lords sat until 3am yesterday, and more sleepless nights are on the cards.

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Never slow to come forward, Sally Bercow leaps to the defence of her husband, Speaker John, who has faced criticism from former Speaker Betty Boothroyd and was involved in the angry clash in a Commons corridor a week ago with Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard.

She accused Baroness Boothroyd, the best Speaker by far in recent times, of talking “nonsense”, and used similarly colourful language to that of Mr Pritchard in response to his charge that Mr Bercow wasn’t “f…… royalty”. “The bottom line is a lot of Tories, I’m afraid, still can’t accept that my husband won the speakership fair and square and is doing a very good job, and did it without Tory support.”

One of Baroness Boothroyd’s complaints was that respect for the Speaker’s office has been diminished by Mr Bercow’s refusal to wear the Speaker’s “uniform”. Mrs Bercow’s answer: “Perhaps I shall get him to sit in the Speaker’s chair in jeans and a biker jacket.”

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Mamma Mia! Who was that taking a closer-than-normal interest in the statue of Margaret Thatcher in the Members Lobby in the House of Commons on Wednesday?

Hollywood star Meryl Streep was at Westminster to pick up some tips for her forthcoming portayal of Britain’s first female prime minister in the film, Iron Lady. Filming started this week.

Miss Streep chatted to Tory MPs, including Ludlow’s Philip Dunne, in the Government whips office before watching Prime Minister’s Question Time. It was a noisy and lively session and must have given the Oscar-winning actress a good idea of what Lady Thatcher had to combat during her 11 years dodging the flak at the despatch box. Mr Dunne said afterwards: “It was a pleasure to hear how she is getting to grips with the great lady’s voice.”

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David Miliband hasn’t been seen around Westminster a great deal since his brother pipped him to the Labour leadership. But he was in cheery mood when I bumped into him despite the prospect of his becoming a director of Sunderland FC co-inciding with the departure to Aston Villa of the club’s prize player asset, striker Darren Bent.

“Did we lose him or did he lose us?” the former foreign secretary wondered, before adding: “If you think politics is a crazy business…”

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Students were campaigning at Westminster on Wednesday, but there was no damage to royal cars, smashed up police vans or fire extinguishers thrown from roofs.

Instead, commuters and tourists were treated to ginger biscuits with the letters EMA written on them.

For those who stopped to talk, the teenagers explained how important the Education Maintenance Allowance was to them and to thousands of youngsters from less well off families.

The Government’s plan to scrap EMA was being debated in the Commons later in the day, and this was an interesting way to show their disapproval.

A way to a man’s heart…