Clause 29 - Meaning of election expenses for purposes of the 1983 Act
Electoral Administration Bill
10:00 am
Harriet Harman (Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Camberwell and Peckham, Labour)
We had a situation where large amounts of money were focused immediately before the dissolution, and that money, which was, to all intents and purposes, campaign expenditure in a particular constituency, was not caught by the rules. Although it might not have been identified as a problem before we last legislated, that is as it may be. That does not negate my argument that there is currently a problem. That is what the clause is designed to address. As we do not have fixed-term elections, we have a trade-off on certainty. My hon. Friend the Member for Livingston is right: the rules are clear. However, they allow for considerable off-the-books spending, which can create unfairness. The hon. Member for Northampton, South said that there would be awful problems and that campaigning by way of newsletters would have to be reported. However, as my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley (Barbara Keeley) said, that could constitute normal parliamentary activity and not, if it took place prior to dissolution, an election expense.
We all agree that the old concept of prospective parliamentary candidates was an artifice that did not work. We have changed that, but we now have a new problem and we have made a proposal to deal with it. The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome asked whether it would be right, if the regulated period were extended from four weeks, or even two, to four months, to keep the same spending level, given that the period would have been extended but the allowable amount would not have been increased. I hope that it will reassure hon. Members—it probably will not—if I undertake not to bring into effect the four-month provision until we have agreed the increase in the amount of spending that will be allowed within that four months. I do not see a great rash of enthusiasm for that on my side of the Committee.
The best that I can do—given that the Bill is our attempt to tackle many problems, that we want to listen to debate, and that this has been the first opportunity for hon. Members of all parties to discuss the detail—is to ask the hon. Gentleman to withdraw the amendment on the understanding that we will come back to the matter on Report. Before that, we will have to have further discussions with all parties in the House of Commons and with the Electoral Commission. When the commission consulted them, the parties—unsurprisingly—all had different views. None appeared to fall full square on the four-month period.
The measure is an attempt to deal with the problem, but there is no consensus, even within parties, on a solution. I urge the Committee to leave the clause in the Bill; not to press the amendment to a vote; to agree that there is a problem; and to accept my undertaking that we will not impose a solution that does not have wide support—that is not the approach that the Department for Constitutional Affairs would take on such an issue, even if colleagues could be whipped into supporting it. On that basis, I ask the hon. Gentleman to withdraw the amendment. However, if we are pressed to a vote, I would ask the Committee to reject the amendment on the understanding that we will come back to the matter.