Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for increasing the maximum limit for political parties to spend at general elections.
Lord Rennard: My Lords, none of the last five Governments has seen fit to increase these spending limits for political parties, so I wonder what was different about this Government? In the last five elections, only one party—the Conservative Party—has come close to spending towards the election expense limit, so why does it now have to be increased by 80%? Which party will benefit? Boris Johnson...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for increasing the maximum limit for political parties to spend at general elections.
Lord Rennard: My Lords, none of the last five Governments has seen fit to increase these spending limits for political parties, so I wonder what was different about this Government? In the last five elections, only one party—the Conservative Party—has come close to spending towards the election expense limit, so why does it now have to be increased by 80%? Which party will benefit? Boris Johnson...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, in the seven minutes in which we are asked to speak today, seven people will have hospital appointments because of their smoking habit. The Department of Health and Social Care estimates that this amounts to around 450,000 hospital appointments in England every year. In the seven hours we expect to debate today, around 700 GP appointments will be made because of smoking. Cancer...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November 2022 (HL Deb, col 1170), whether they update the House on claims made as a result of the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA); when and how a review of the PDCA will take place; and how the National Audit Office is able to distinguish between the costs of paying staff, travel, and accommodation...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, our debates on the Elections Act last year highlighted a number of inconsistencies with the franchise. The rights of Irish citizens, and, for example, Maltese and Cypriot citizens as members of the Commonwealth, are protected, but the rights of some EU citizens who live and work here and pay their taxes here, and who may do so in future, are not properly respected. It is time to...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Jones, who I think entered the other place at a point when my role in elections was counting the posters as I walked to my primary school, wondering what on earth this was all about. After our extensive debates on the Elections Act, I do not think we need to spend a lot of time dwelling on these various measures which are necessary...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, I shall begin my contribution with six words very rarely used by me on these Benches: I support the Government on this. There are some people, including some here, who have been busy praising Boris Johnson in the manner of Shakespeare’s Mark Antony’s funeral oration following the murder of Julius Caesar. They ignore the line “The evil that men do lives after them”, and heap...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, allowing for postal votes, there will be more than 1 million people legally entitled to vote tomorrow who will not be able to do so because of the new requirements. The number of people who do not go to the polling station because of them will never be known; nor will the number of people turned away at the entrance to polling stations ever be known. If the Electoral Commission’s...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of (1) the number of registered electors who have acquired Voter Authority Certificates, and (2) the effectiveness of the scheme in practice.
Lord Rennard: My Lords, the Government estimated that around 2 million people who are on the electoral register do not have one of the forms of photo ID required this year. Around 1.6 million of those people have elections on Thursday—but the figures show that more than 1.5 million do not have the local authority certificate and will be unable to vote on Thursday, unless by any chance they have acquired...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, it is not without irony when this Chamber discusses our democracy. Many people recognise that we often do a very good job here, a much better job than the Commons, of scrutinising legislation. There, MPs are hardly given the time to look at most of it. A second Chamber is therefore needed. However, when we ask MPs to think again, our carefully considered views are too often ignored...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, political parties and organisations monitoring the situation, such as the Electoral Commission, can find it hard to check the original source of donations made, as we saw from those made in the EU referendum campaign donated via the Isle of Man. But some checks can be made, through credit reference agencies et cetera. How will the parties and the Electoral Commission be able to make...
Lord Rennard: The current 10-week delay in passport applications is frustrating for travellers. The five-week strike will cause further problems. It will also reduce the number of people who have one of the specified forms of photo ID to let them vote if they have elections on 4 May. The uptake of local authority voter ID cards has been pathetic. During debates on the then Elections Bill, Ministers...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, following the question from the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, is the Minister aware of the different political culture in Northern Ireland, and the fact that in the 1983 general election there were clear justifications for the introduction of some form of ID? There has been no such justification in Great Britain. The returning officer for Northern Ireland said that, after the...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government when the next review of the Public Duty Costs Allowance will take place; who will be consulted; what plans they have for recipients to be required to declare their claims upon the fund in a similar fashion to MPs; and whether the review will examine how the use of the allowance for public duties can be distinguished from costs incurred in (1) making fee paying...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for taxpayer funded legal costs for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in relation to his investigation by the House of Commons Privileges Committee to be set against any claims he should make from the Public Duty Costs Allowance.
