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Electoral Administration Bill

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness for clarifying the Government’s position. She suggested two reasons why the text of the Bill is sound: first, that a loan transaction between a registered party and a bank located not in the United Kingdom but in some other part of a member state would not constitute a transaction which fell within the provisions of the Treaty of Rome. With that judgment, I respectfully disagree. However, I understand the second arm of her argument which is that such a transaction may fall within the public policy provisions of the treaty, provisions which are an exception to all the fundamental freedoms of the treaty. I now understand that that is the basis upon which the Government are approaching this matter. So clarified, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 108 not moved.]