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Political Parties: Funding

My Lords, I greatly welcome the noble Lord’s enthusiastic support for limits on expenditure. I also take his remarks to be enthusiastic support for Sir Hayden’s proposal that national expenditure limits should be equal. That was absolutely clear from the splendid words that he used at the end of his intervention when he mentioned the £90 million. I also take it that he utterly condemns the words of the noble Lord, Lord Ashcroft, which I read out, to the effect that it would be wholly wrong to spend money outside the 12 months to which he referred in order to buy seats.