There was some surprise in the Tory ranks after Gordon Brown pledged in PMQs that – as part of MP expenses reform – there would be changes to “grace and favour homes”. This was a reference to his proposal that ministers with free London homes would no longer get the second home allowance.

Eagle-eyed Tory MPs spotted the fact that today’s order sheet had no reference to grace and favour homes. It turns out that this is because the ban can be easily introduced through changes to the ministerial code of conduct.

But this probably won’t apply to one political grandee who lives for free on the grounds of Parliament. That’s right. Michael Martin, the speaker, is likely to be excluded – because he is not a minister.

The Lib Dems tried to put forward an amendment today which would have embraced all “honourable members” – presumably including the speaker. The clause, from David Heath, proposed that “no hon member occupying accomodation provided at public expense shall be deemed to have a need to incur additional costs in order to undertake their parliamentary duties“. The speaker has rejected the amendment.

UPDATE

The government has crumbled in the face of the most important amendment – from Sir George Young – which will defer reform until the summer; after Sir Christopher Kelly’s committee has reported. The prime minister may have only narrowly averted a second defeat in two days. Here is the story.

This appears to be an embarrassing retreat, given that earlier in the week officials were describing the amendment’s authors “the forces of reaction”.

FURTHER UPDATE

Novelist Iain Pears has some thoughts here on how to align MPs pay with performance.

Whatever is left of Gordon Brown’s attempt to reform MPs’ expenses is about to be dealt a heavy blow.

The powerful standards and privileges committee, which represents four parties, will table an amendment on Thursday calling on Gordon Brown to allow an independent review of expenses to conclude before passing reforms.

An intervention from as important a committee as this (it basically looks at complaints over breaches of rules) is almost certain to win wide support in the Commons. It is highly likely that Gordon Brown will be forced to withdraw the face saving compromise he cooked up last night. The great and the good of the Commons have spoken. It will be a humiliating decision, but the prime minister has little other choice.

The committee’s decision was unanimous (the Labour MPs on the Chris Mullin, Andrew Whitehead, Kevin Baron and Paddy Tipping). The amendment calls for Sir Christopher Kelly to complete his review of members allowances “without being pre-empted by decisions of the House of Commons”.

“The members of the committee are unanimously of the view that only changes arising from an independent, external review of the system of members allowances will command public support.”

UPDATE

The vote is going ahead, according to Downing Street.

It also looks like the Tory frontbench will be backing part of the Brown reform package, while attempting to amend the suggestion that allowances should be linked to attendance. Sir George Young’s amendment will not win their support, presumably because they would not want to be delaying reforms in order to wait for Sir Christopher Kelly’s conclusions.

The masses of disgruntled backbenchers may swing behing Sir George’s amendment, but it’s unclear whether this will be enough to block the Brown reforms.