New Clause 4 Extra provision for collection of postal votes
Electoral Administration Bill
12:30 pm
Eleanor Laing (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Scotland; Epping Forest, Conservative)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
New clause 5 concerns referendum campaign funding. It would amend section 125 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The Electoral Commission recently published a report into last year’s north-east regional assembly referendum. That strongly criticises the controversial information campaign of the Deputy Prime Minister, on which some £3 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on one side of the campaign. The Electoral Commission recommends that the Government should be banned from funding any information campaign, not just 28 days before polling day, as at present, but from the start of the referendum period.
Section 125 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 sets out the restrictions on publications at referendums. No material of a specified type may be published during the relevant period by or on behalf of any Minister of the Crown, Government Department or local authority, or any other person or body whose expenses are defrayed wholly or mainly out of public funds or by any local authority. Material relating to a referendum may be published only during the referendum period if it complies with specified requirements.
The effect of new clause 5 would be to alter the relevant period from 28 days before polling day to a period commencing when the campaign begins and ending with the date of poll. That would effectively ban the Government from funding any information campaign with taxpayers’ money.