Clause 13
Political Parties and Elections Bill
11:15 am
Eleanor Laing (Shadow Minister, Justice; Epping Forest, Conservative)
The hon. Member for Argyll and Bute has just expressed most of the concerns that I would have expressed, having also discussed the matter with the Electoral Commission. When the Electoral Commission comes forward with concerns, we must take it seriously—it is not doing so for any reason other than to try to make the system work better. Although I understand what clause 13 says and what it brings about, I cannot quite understand why the Government are bothering to make this change to a system that appeared to work perfectly well before. Is this because the Government have been told by the European Commission that this is the right thing to do in respect of European elections? [Interruption.] The Minister indicates that that is not the case. I accept that and will put that to one side. I am delighted, because in the United Kingdom we are perfectly capable of running our own elections the way we always have done, without any interference from those who sometimes think that they know better. However, it still puzzles me why this is necessary.