Clause 47 - Political party description
Electoral Administration Bill
2:15 pm
Eleanor Laing (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Scotland; Epping Forest, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 64, in clause 47, page 54, line 28, leave out 'up to five'.
The amendment continues with an issue first raised on clause 23 by my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon at Tuesday afternoon's sitting—descriptions of independent candidates. I shall not repeat the arguments made two days' ago, as the Committee properly considered the matter then.
The amendment would remove the Government's new limit on the number of variations allowed on a political party's description. The clause would thus read, ''A party's application under section 28 may include a request for the registration of descriptions to be used on nomination papers or ballot papers.'' The limit of ''up to five'' would be unfair to political parties; independents would be able to call themselves whatever they wished, yet candidates from political parties would be prevented from using regional variations.