---

Business of the House

May we have a debate—or, better still, a Bill in the Queen's Speech—to close the loophole that allows candidates to spend unlimited amounts of money until four weeks before an election? I am sure that my right hon. and learned Friend is as alarmed as I am by the sight of Lord Ashcroft roaming the country signing cheques for £25,000 at the drop of a business plan, for the few candidates who win his approval. Does that not smell of the Victorian era, when landowners controlled strings of rotten boroughs and could spend money to ensure that their candidates were elected?