Clause 5
Political Parties and Elections Bill
12:00 pm
Pete Wishart (Spokesperson (Overseas Aid; Culture, Media & Sport; Ministry of Justice); Perth and North Perthshire, Scottish National Party)
I am grateful to the Minister for his intervention and I agree with practically every word he says, but may I say to him, in all candidness, that there will be a whiff of suspicion about the work of the Electoral Commission when it comes to the Scottish elections? On the Electoral Commission, there will be nominated political commissioners from the Conservative, Liberal and Labour parties for the regulation of electoral law in elections to the Scottish Parliament, but there will be no representative from the largest political party in Scotland, which forms the Scottish Government.
The Minister may go on and on about the fine group of people who have our best interests at heart, but, for ever and a day, there will be a whiff of suspicion that something is not quite right. All the other political parties will get to nominate a political commissioner, but the party of government in Scotland will not. That cannot be right. I cannot accept that that is the way forward for Scotland.
We are coming to amendment No. 111, which will, I hope, clarify the role of political commissioners. That is the opportunity for people to say what the political commissioners can do. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.