Clause 20 - Minimum age
Electoral Administration Bill
4:30 pm
David Cairns (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Scotland Office; Inverclyde, Labour)
I rise to speak knowing that I have rather more knowledge of House of Commons disqualification than do most hon. Members, having been the victim of one such disqualification that required primary legislation in the rather anxious weeks before the 2001 election before I could stand.
The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome rightly highlights several discrepancies. Some disqualifications allow one to stand for election but do not allow one to take up one's seat. The ones that debarred me were precisely those; they were statutes relating to membership of the House of Commons, which presupposed that people did not have to stand for elections. Subsequent electoral law never took that into consideration, so it was perfectly valid for me to stand for election and to be elected, but I could not have taken up my seat. That, however, is not the precise issue that we are debating.
I echo the objection expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee, West (Mr. McGovern) when I say that we do not want someone who is 14 when nominated and at the time of the election having to wait until they are 18 before they can take their seat. After all, there is no axiomatic link between someone being elected and taking their seat. It would be perfectly possible for Sinn Fein Members who were elected months ago to take their seats at any time, so we must be careful about legislating when such gaps exist.
The Bill is trying to do precisely what the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome has asked us to, which is to harmonise and standardise the arrangements. The arrangements, as they apply to local and GLA elections, already make it clear that candidates must have reached the minimum age by the time when they are nominated. Clause 20 clarifies the fact that the age disqualification is linked to the day on which the candidates are nominated at parliamentary elections.
One can pick either the day of nomination or the day of the election because the day of nomination is 11 days before the day of election. That answers the point made by the hon. Member for Huntingdon, because one will know the day of the election by the day of nomination. The matter is therefore not technically difficult. It is simply a question of which day one picks. I am attracted to the idea that we would maximise the ability of someone to stand at election if, during those 11 days, the candidate had a birthday and would otherwise be debarred if they turned 18 between the day of nomination and the day of the election, but if the amendment were adopted, we would end up with a discrepancy between the law as it applies to Westminster and the law as it applies to the GLA and local elections.
There are other issues relating to non-contested elections, in which the day of nomination is in effect the day on which the person is elected. Overall, we are trying to do what the hon. Gentleman wants us to, which is to standardise the arrangements. The Bill makes a change from the historical precedent, but we are standardising towards the status quo for the GLA and local elections. I think that his overriding aim is for clarity and standardisation and hope that with that reassurance he will withdraw the amendment.