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Political Parties and Elections Bill

I try to speak briefly on amendments which are not my own and I want to say only a very few words. I cannot see how a £50,000 cap on donations will work, the simple reason being that it is very easy to circumvent through foreign donations. You simply spread the donations through a number of routes and thereby circumvent the donations regime domestically. There is only one way to sort out this problem. The Liberal Democrats know it because they are moving amendments which basically deal with the problem—that is, capping expenditure. We have to control annual expenditure by the political parties. No one wants to talk that language, but capping expenditure would provide for the far more efficient use of resource by political parties. To be frank, it really is not of any great interest where the money comes from so long as it does not exercise undue influence over the political parties concerned. My contributions in this debate will essentially be about capping expenditure. I agree with many of the amendments being moved by the Liberal Democrats but, unfortunately, I feel that this one is of no consequence.