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Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for confirming that point. Certainly, whatever the mechanism, there have to be effective controls on expenditure at constituency level. That should not exclude direct mailing of the type described by the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath). I have mentioned the commission and expenditure; my third point is about trade unions. I was interested in the right hon. Member for Horsham's reaction to my intervention. I believe—people might say, ““You would, wouldn't you?””—that my position in relation to the trade unions' role in the Labour party pretty well reflects the historical relationship between the trade unions and the Labour party. I am supportive of it. The trade unions are now heavily regulated by legislation. Of course, we are talking about affiliated trade unions, which have to have regular ballots to affiliate. I have had views, in the past, on the position of non-affiliated trade unions, which are an important source of workers, and indeed one might consider trying to organise some money—I am particularly thinking of my party—voluntarily through those trade unions. On the affiliates, however, one has to accept that the Labour party is, in a sense, a federal party.