Political Parties and Elections Bill
Orders of the Day
House of Commons debates, 20 October 2008, 5:16 pm
Denis MacShane (Rotherham, Labour)
The right hon. Gentleman is saying that he wants to be a virgin and have sex at the same time—he cannot do that. His noble friend Lord Fowler, a former colleague, said in a book published a couple of months ago that the Conservative party should have gone in the 1990s for complete state funding and put an end to all external financing. If the Conservatives do not do that, they will always end up being tainted by Lord Ashcroft, loans and so on, and if there is a change of Government in the next 10 or 20 years, under proposed new schedule 19 to this Bill they will know all about that.