“The Government narrowly avoided another humiliating House of Lords defeat, winning the vote by just 257 to 246.

Peers rejected a Lib Dem bid to block an accelerated transition to individual voter registration.

“Ministers should be ashamed,” said Lib Dem peer Lord Tyler, who tried to kill the plans with a ‘fatal motion’.

The Tory plan to switch to a new method of registering voters from the end of this year had been criticised by the independent Electoral Commission, as nearly two million people have not signed up.

Labour has warned it will prevent huge numbers from voting and will skew the forthcoming review of Parliamentary boundaries, which will be based on the new electoral register.

Labour peer Lord Willis said: “This risks excluding millions from their democratic right to vote.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/conservative-peers-could-cost-two-6718620