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Political Parties and Elections Bill

I have dealt with why we have not been able to move forward with those proposals. The trigger arrangements, which have been a feature of electoral law since 1883 and were repeated in the 1983 legislation, did not totally control spending at the local level before a general election, but they did have a dampening effect. Like me, many hon. Members were candidates before the 2000 Act came into force, and the advice to candidates, which again is recited in the Library note, was that we had to concentrate on expounding on our parties' policies, not on the merits of candidates, which did dampen expenditure.