Clause 29 - Meaning of election expenses for purposes of the 1983 Act
Electoral Administration Bill
9:00 am
David Heath (Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs & Shadow Leader of the House, Law Officers (Constitutional Affairs); Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
The amendment deals with something that I clearly signalled on Second Reading ought to be looked at seriously. I want to say immediately that all parties will be affected, particularly in marginal constituencies, because all parties use similar techniques to reach electors. I am not aiming at one party or another, but particularly at the conduct of the large political parties.
At the moment, I believe abuse goes on. Fairly large parts of expenditure avoid being included in the returns required from the agent in a specific constituency; specifically, communications from political parties addressed to electors, or delivered door to door, that clearly convey either a positive message about a party engaged in that election or a negative message about another party contesting the election, but that are not included within election expenses, simply because there is no reference to a specific candidate.
In my own, marginal constituency, in the last election I saw letters addressed to electors by the Conservatives, from the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard). We retaliated in kind, not unexpectedly. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Southport (Dr. Pugh) had much the same situation in his constituency.
The point that I am making, which is not to score against other parties, is about a communication of any kind specifically addressed to an elector; specifically addressed, because we cannot sensibly apportion the cost of billboards, for instance. We accept that there is some national advertising, which might be more prominent in some constituencies rather than others, but is nevertheless a national campaign. To devise a system that allowed for apportionment of that within individual election expenses returns would be beyond us. However, communications within a specific constituency for named electors or by implication for named electors, because they are put through a specific door, are surely an election expense incurred in the prosecution of that particular election. For that to fall outside the present electoral laws seems perverse and hugely distorting of the intentions of having election expenses limits at all.
There will still be abuses. I am not so naïve as to believe that my amendment would end all abuses. A very large industry has developed around phone canvassing, for instance. Very often, phone canvassers operate not only from premises outside the constituency in question but from far away. I understand that they sometimes operate even from call centres, which is counter-productive, as all the anecdotal evidence from my constituency suggests that someone ringing constituents from a long way away—