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Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am a new Member of the House, so perhaps your Lordships will forgive me for being a little slow on the procedure after a Division in the House; even a negated Division. Apparently, one just has to get up and try to remember where one was when the Division was called. I was referring to the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, who had made a fair point about trade union members being aware of a political fund and occasionally being asked whether they were supportive of it. It would seem to us to be simple to go one step further and ask, "Who do you think the funds ought to be allocated to?". That might be stretching it a little far, but in the overall remit, that is our objective. People who hold a set of political beliefs may not have the opportunity to opt out of having their funds taken and given to party-political purposes that they would not support. Our difficulty with Amendment 109 relates to the qualifications that it contains. My noble friend Lord Marland, together with David Cameron and Francis Maude, played a key role in moving the Conservative Party into a modern era where big-money politics is not accepted. My noble friend has led the Conservative Party on a kind of road-to-Damascus experience, and we hope that the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, or even the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, might lead the Labour Party on the same road. It will then reach the conclusion that such disproportionate funding from one particular source is inappropriate in building public confidence and trust in our political system.