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Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, this has been a debate of outstanding quality. I am new to your Lordships’ House, and it is incredibly impressive to hear such skilled speeches and debates about the detail of this legislation. I shall touch on a few of those points without detracting from the outstanding experience that is present in this House and which I do not possess. In moving his amendment, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, touched on a point with which we certainly agree: the procedural way in which matters are conducted down the other end of the Palace of Westminster—the over-frequent use of the guillotine and the stifling of debate—leaves much to be desired. That is not the case here. This amendment was moved in Grand Committee, again very ably. It sparked a debate that went on for an hour. During that time, the Minister gave a detailed, almost line-by-line, rebuttal of the reasons why the amendment would not work in the way that it was proposed. I found that argument quite persuasive. There is a need, which has been articulated by my right honourable friend David Cameron on a number of occasions, to remove big money from British politics. That desire is there and all parties of the House need to agree on how it should move forward. Hayden Phillips had almost reached that point before, sadly, the Government abandoned that pledge. Therefore, we are left with the difficulties before us. Very detailed restrictions are put on people who want to donate to political parties in this House. They have to be registered or be on the electoral register. The money has to come from a UK-registered corporation. In both those respects, it could be argued that there is some level of interest; namely, that either the person is resident and is on a register or that they are part of our economy and paying through a company which is registered here. We also need to bear in mind that context is important as regards the notion and the language of buying elections. I can understand why people use that sense of hyperbole—