Lib Dem MPs will try to block Conservative plans to drive House of Lords into a different direction.
The Deputy PM has said he was dropping Lords reform after David Cameron told him Tory MPs were not prepared to support changes.
Nick Clegg said that the Tories had “broken the contract” between the coalition partners, even though his party had consistently delivered on its side of the deal.
He told a news conference in London: “The Conservative Party is not honouring the commitment to the Lords reform and, as a result, part of our contract has now been broken.
“Clearly I cannot permit a situation where Conservative rebels can pick and choose the parts of the contract they like, while Liberal Democrat MPs are bound to the entire agreement.
Nick Clegg said that the Tories had “broken the contract” between the coalition partners, even though his party had consistently delivered on its side of the deal.
He told a news conference in London: “The Conservative Party is not honouring the commitment to the Lords reform and, as a result, part of our contract has now been broken.
The coalition works on mutual respect; it is a reciprocal agreement, a two-way street. So I have told the Prime Minister that when, in due course, parliament votes on boundary changes for the 2015 election I will be instructing my party to oppose them.
He said he was dropping the Lords reform bill after David Cameron informed him that an “insufficient number” of Tory MPs were prepared to support the changes.
But he insisted that the Lib Dems would carry on in the coalition.
“The thing I care about most – the central purpose of the Liberal Democrats in this Government – is to build a fairer society,” he said.
“We will continue with that critical work. We will continue to anchor this Government firmly in the centre ground.”
Mr Clegg disclosed that he offered a “last ditch” compromise to try to save both parts of the reform programme.
Under his proposal, there would have been a referendum on Lords reform on general election day in 2015 – with both boundary changes and the first elections to the Lords deferred until 2020.
Conservative Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt described the decision as “disappointing”, but said it would not affect the two parties’ commitment to work together.
He said: “The really important thing about this coalition is that we came together to sort out the economic mess that we inherited from Labour.
“There isn’t a cigarette paper between us on that. That is what we are focused on getting the gold medal for. Nothing is going to change that focus.”
It comes after Mr Clegg dismissed claims of splits within the coalition over carbon emissions reduction as he announced a £100m investment in energy efficiency.
Speaking to an energy conference in London, he insisted ministers were “unreservedly committed” to helping the low-carbon sector and that no one in the coalition wanted to ditch the programme to de-carbonise Britain’s economy.
Environmentalists were dismayed by Chancellor George Osborne’s comment to last year’s Tory conference that, while the Government would invest in green energy, “we’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business.”
The Treasury was understood to have demanded cuts in subsidies for onshore wind power in a tussle between Mr Osborne and Lib Dem Energy Secretary Ed Davey.
But Mr Clegg played down the spat as “part of internal discussions and debates on the balance and sequencing of different policies that are a normal feature of any government”.
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