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Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am sympathetic to the thrust of the amendments, which have been thoughtfully put together. I am at slight loggerheads with my party, whereas I totally agree that the amendments would be very difficult to impose and would give us greater policing difficulty. One has to respect the fact that a lot of thought has gone into this—a lot of practical thought, given the experience of the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, has on these matters. The particular point that I may be at loggerheads with my party on is the back-counting of 365 days for adding up the total election expenditure. At the last election, great strain was put on parties, considering that in that back-counting you had to include the cost of the European elections and the local elections. The decision as to when the election is called and the back-counting totally favours the incumbent, and this cannot be fair in the current electoral system. Another system of establishing the period during which the total spending limit for an election is allowed has to be rethought. Some of the amendments have a stab at that, and I hope that the Minister might consider looking at this issue again during this Bill.