---

Political Parties and Elections Bill

I can tell the hon. Gentleman straightforwardly that I have absolutely no idea; it is entirely a matter for Lord Ashcroft. The situation tonight is most unedifying. Ministers recognised that the Lords amendments had no proper place in the Bill but, to throw red meat to the likes of the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member for Battersea and try to buy off rebels, have decided to allow clause 8 to go forward—despite the fact that it will not work in practice. The hon. Gentlemen are clearly fixated by people of great wealth who might want to donate to political parties, but anybody of any great wealth will of course have companies in which they are major shareholders, and, unless we want to restrict British companies that trade fully in this country also from participating in and supporting British politics, which seems to be the view of the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth), we will find that the clause will be completely ineffectual. I imagine that the Secretary of State, when he discussed it with his colleagues, decided that, like so much of the Government's current legislation, it would not work but, if it appeased Labour Members on the far Back Benches for a while, would be a price worth paying—even if it were of no real moment. We need to clean up politics, but we need to recognise the real demon that afflicts our political system. The real demon in political funding is not Lord Ashcroft or any of the other thousands of people who donate to the Conservative party; it is a Labour party that is entirely dependent on funding from the trade unions; and a Labour party whose Ministers sit down with Warwick agreements 1 and 2. It is that relationship which is utterly corrupt, indefensible and should be the subject of legislation, not this partisan effort by the Government today.