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Political Parties (Funding and Expenditure)

I welcome the direction of my right hon. Friend's statement this afternoon and the proposal to introduce the trigger mechanism into spending that is registerable as campaign expenditure. Does he accept, however, that the expenditure arms race is percolating across the whole electoral period and all forms of spending, national and local? Does he consider that a trigger mechanism and, indeed, the White Paper's contents are a way station towards an overall cap on the expenditure of parties between general elections and during entire Parliaments?