---

Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am afraid that I do not accept that for one second. We are not creating a loophole or relaxing the criteria at all. The British people, on whose behalf the hon. Gentleman professes to speak, are driven by the principles of fairness and justice. We are trying to ensure that those principles are applied. People can make small, inadvertent, genuine errors. Who among us can hold his hands up and say, "I have never made a single mistake, no matter how small, at any cost to anyone else"? I am not sure that even the hon. Gentleman will say that. If he wants to stand up and tell me that he has never made a mistake with the best of motives, I am happy to let him do so. Is he going to? I think not.