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Electoral Administration Bill

In inner-city seats, the Member of Parliament is likely to have a much larger proportion of non-voting constituents than is the case in a rural seat. That is simply because of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, who nevertheless require representation. One must remember that, although the party of an MP decides the colour of the Government, MPs have a major job as social workers, representing the people concerned, as well as legislators. The business representation element—on which I am grateful for the intervention of the noble Lord, Lord Tyler—can be astonishingly diverse. I used to represent 15 times the average business constituency in an ordinary constituency. If somebody from a business wrote to a Member of Parliament, 15 businessmen were likely to write to me on the same subject. Yet, somehow, it all had to be done in the time available, and they had to be properly represented. Some degree of consideration for these other aspects needs to be built into any amendment which eventually gets into legislation; otherwise, because of the workload, we will have some people remaining Members of Parliament for 30 years, and some for 5.