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Disqualification from Parliament (Taxation Status) Bill

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, to which I was going to refer later in my speech, but I will address it now. He is correct that the Bill as drafted would have an anomaly in that a citizen of the Republic of Ireland could be disqualified from standing for the Northern Ireland Assembly. The same point might apply to Members of the European Parliament. In both those situations, people could be unfairly disqualified from standing. Although we support the idea behind the Bill in principle, I will ask my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle whether he would be open to amendments in Committee—he has indicated that he would—to ensure that such candidates would not be unfairly prevented from standing for Parliament.