Clause 23 - Description of independent candidates
Electoral Administration Bill
6:15 pm
David Cairns (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Scotland Office; Inverclyde, Labour)
I accept that the hon. Gentleman is entitled to revisit these issues in his clause stand part speech, but given that the amendments that we have just addressed, taken together, would delete almost the entire clause, we have already effectively had a substantial stand part debate on them.
I reiterate the points that I made then. First, there are reasons of equity; we allow ourselves such descriptions, but we do not allow them to independents. I think that we should. There is also the reason of avoiding confusion; if there is more than one independent on the ballot paper, it might be useful for the elector to know which independent is which, so we should allow descriptions. It is simply not the case that independents can have as many descriptions as they want; they can have only one—one independent candidate, one description.
We who are in political parties are not in a position to say, ''Everybody else has to get into political parties, or else they will not be able to take part.'' That expresses a bit of a siege mentality. If an individual wishes to stand as an independent, and is genuinely independent, they should be allowed to have a description on the ballot paper. Clearly, I have not convinced the massed ranks of the Opposition. I did not do it when we were debating the amendments and I suspect that I am not going to do it now, but, for reasons of equity and to avoid confusion, I urge hon. Members not to reject the clause at this stage, because it is important.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 23, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.