Scottish Parliamentary Elections

Part of Opposition Day — [12th allotted day] – in the House of Commons at 1:41 pm on 23 May 2007.

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Photo of David Mundell David Mundell Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland 1:41, 23 May 2007

If the hon. Gentleman believes that the Government have set up an independent inquiry, he is mistaken. They have not; they have referred the matter to the Electoral Commission. We regard this debate as one about an issue of great importance to the people of Scotland.

During questions on his statement, the Secretary of State seemed to suggest that the then figure of 100,000, cited in the media as representing the number of rejected ballots in the Scottish elections, was too high. In fact, the figure turned out to be too low, by nearly 50,000—there were 146,097 rejected ballots, the equivalent of 1 million in a UK general election. If that is not an important issue and an affront to democracy, I do not know what is.