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Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in today’s debate. I shall discipline myself and not respond at length to this matter. The House has important matters to debate today and tomorrow. I am grateful to noble Lords who have thanked the Government for taking the stance that they have. It is not an easy issue and I do not pretend for a moment that it is. However, we have found our way through the thicket. We were always sympathetic to the principle that my noble friend raised but were concerned about its practicalities. I do not say that all those concerns have gone away as that would not be true, but we think that we have found a way through by retaining the principle there and the ability to implement this provision in due course. The noble Lord, Lord Tyler, asked me a number of questions, which I shall deal with shortly. Aggregation is not a loophole. The approach in these amendments reflects the approach in the PPERA legislation of 2000. We do not believe that it is workable or fair to expect different recipients of donations to act in the knowledge of donations received by others, which they have no way of knowing about. The approach taken by these amendments is consistent with the 2000 Act. It would be very difficult—even onerous—to expect an MP or other individual party member to check what donations had been received in the same year by other MPs or party members of the same party. It is not at all clear how we could realistically expect someone to go about that task. We must remember that an MP represents a constituency in his or her individual capacity, not as a member of a party, and might well receive donations on that basis. We do not want to undermine that principle. A donor could seek to get round the new restriction by giving donations below £7,500 to a large number of MPs of the same party. However, MPs are required to report donations that they receive at the lower threshold of £1,000, to be raised to £1,500 by the Bill, so such behaviour would soon become apparent. Recent events suggest that the public is not well disposed towards those who seek to operate only within the letter of the law without also respecting its spirit. As far as companies are concerned, which was the second point raised by the noble Lord, the amendments restrict the permissibility of individuals to give political donations: they do not restrict the permissibility of donations from companies. Amendments on company donations would be out of scope. However, Clause 8 of the Bill requires a declaration to accompany donations above £7,500 about the source of the donation. That is intended to ensure that any agency arrangement is properly declared. Therefore, if an individual gives money to a company, another person or entity with the intention that that money is given as a political donation, that arrangement ought to be declared and the individual treated as the donor. We have and continue to have sympathy with the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, on this, but there remains a serious concern about how such a restriction could be introduced in practice. In particular, there would be no easy way for parties to establish the make-up of a company’s shareholder register. Those amendments were therefore not accepted and were returned to at a subsequent stage of the Bill. The noble Lord’s last point that I want to answer was that Members of Parliament could receive up to £7,500 each from non-residents for tax purposes but candidates could not. He made that distinction. Where candidates are members of a political party, they are regulated under PPERA as a regulated donee, and as such, are covered by these amendments. Independent candidates are only regarded in the period preceding an election under the Representation of the People Act 1983, as amended. As such, they are not subject to the requirements in PPERA nor by these amendments. To suggest that donations to candidates are unregulated is not strictly fair or true. Indeed, most candidates are party members, so are captured by these requirements. I do not seek to try to answer all the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Bates. I am sure that he enjoyed himself immensely in his speech by pointing out what had been said in earlier debates on the Bill. If that gave him and the House satisfaction, so be it.