Parliament is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Blair premiership – and especially of the second term. Critics of the government bemoan the Prime Minister's own lack of interest in the institution – as demonstrated by his poor voting record – and the government's approach to reform of both the Commons and the Lords. They bemoan the decline of Parliament and its increasing subservience to the executive.

Yet the true picture is more complicated – and more balanced – than this melancholy caricature. This chapter examines both the growing independence of Labour's backbenchers and the process of Commons modernisation during the second Blair term. It also examines the two key developments in the Lords during the same period: the cack-handed (and ultimately futile) attempts to enact stage two of Lords reform, alongside the growing activism and assertiveness of the partly reformed Lords.

The combined result of these four developments was that throughout 2001–5 the government faced a partly reformed but much more assertive House of Commons and a partly reformed but much more assertive House of Lords. It is probably fair to say that it is not what the government had intended when it first took office – or what it desired – but it is also a more positive picture than the government's many critics appreciate.