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Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, these amendments are in the same vein as the previous group that we discussed. I can therefore keep my comments fairly brief, because most of the points have been covered. The noble Lord, Lord Tyler, referred to being virtuous, but not yet. He might say that to his own party on the question of the donation of £2.4 million. This is a germane point and the people watching this debate or reading it in Hansard need to have it placed in context. It was a significant donation from a foreign national, a fugitive from justice in the UK, which was made to the Liberal Democrats, who refuse to repay it. If the Liberal Democrats feel so passionately about being virtuous, why not repay it? If the noble Lord will make that pledge I shall happily give way to him in order that he may do so. My real point on spending preferences is that in a fair and democratic situation we need to have a level playing field. However, that level playing field—I alluded to this in my previous comments—has been distorted by the amount of public money that has been poured into constituencies. The office costs allowance, which I mentioned, and the communications allowance could amount to something in the region of £100,000 per year, or £500,000 during the lifetime of a Parliament. That money is put in by the incumbent and is in addition to all the benefits and opportunities that he or she has of writing letters and access to the press.