---

Political Parties and Elections Bill

The noble Lord, Lord MacGregor, referred to the impact of this, and whether it might treat political parties unfairly in the sense that people on higher incomes, paying higher taxes, might be inclined to vote in a particular way and the benefit would therefore arise for a particular political party. I am not altogether sure about that. In the period up to 1997, if such a scheme had been in operation I am sure that there would not have been very much difference between the application of this principle, whether it applied to Conservative, Labour or Liberal voters. I suspect that Labour was sufficiently popular at that time to have been able to attract as much donation as other political parties. Maybe at the moment, because we have a little difficulty which we all know about, contributions under this system might drop off. That is just the to and fro of politics. The noble Lord, Lord MacGregor, said that he would not support it right now, for reasons that I perfectly understand. I wonder whether the principle could be carried in the legislation. Why cannot we just set a limit of £15, or something? That would establish the principle and would be at minimal cost to the state. By regulation, that figure could be increased over time. It is not something particularly expensive, and I do not know whether all those brilliant people sitting behind the Minister who know all about these matters can advise him very hurriedly on whether it would be possible to introduce a regulation of that nature or whether it would simply be a decision taken in a Budget. It might be that in the course of a Budget the actual figure could be increased, but the fundamental arrangement could be in place to allow those changes to take place. I am very much in favour of that idea. It takes us along the state funding route; it is the beginning of a process. It is a very cheap way of establishing a principle that would, I think, carry very wide public support. I am in favour of state funding, and I am sure that this would sell with the public, because they would feel that at least it was they who were deciding and not the state—whereas, obviously, I would want the state to decide on these matters. I would certainly go down that route, and it is good to see that there is all-party support for the principle.