Greater London Authority Bill

moved Amendment No. 94: 94: Clause 57, page 52, line 22, at end insert— ““(10) Different days may be appointed in respect of section (Mayor: limit on number of terms) in the case of— (a) persons twice elected to the office in question before the day on which this Act is passed, and (b) other persons.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, Amendment No. 93, which has been withdrawn from the Marshalled List, had a similar aim. That was debated with a similar group of amendments last week, regarding a limit on the number of terms that a Mayor or an Assembly Member can serve. Your Lordships will be aware that the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, was agreed to on that occasion. I refer to Assembly Members, although I am a little unclear on whether the amendment agreed would have the effect of limiting the number of terms that an Assembly Member could serve, which was the aim of the amendment in the name of my noble friend Lord Tope and myself that was also debated. We had proposed the predecessor to this amendment for a reason that we were at pains to explain; that the limitation on the number of terms that a Mayor might serve was not a personal attack on the current Mayor. As I said then, had my noble friend been the Mayor, I would have been moving exactly the same amendment. Nor did we feel it appropriate, so close to the May 2008 elections, to change the rules of the game. This amendment, then, is designed to allow for commencement of the limitation on the number of terms at a later date; so, it could be postponed until after the next elections. The Government should accept this amendment, because it is a proper consequence of the debate that we had last week. I am not naive enough to expect the Commons not to throw out the amendment that your Lordships agreed; nevertheless, that is a part of the Bill as it currently stands—and as it will go back, in due course, to the Commons. I want to emphasise fairness, so that there is no change in the rules at a relatively late stage, and that this is not a personal matter. I beg to move.