Political Parties and Elections Bill

The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, will not be surprised to learn that he does not have my support on his amendments. I shall be relatively brief in dealing with the arguments that he put at considerable length, but there are three important points to make. First, and I think that the Minister would agree with me, these are matters where we should proceed by consensus. The parts of this Bill that are working best are those where consensus has come into it, as the Minister acknowledged earlier. Secondly, we already have strict rules which deal with controlling who can and cannot donate to political parties. If there is a concern about large donors having a disproportionate influence on the political process, which is in effect what the noble Lord is worried about, that is a matter that in my party’s belief should be addressed by a comprehensive cap on donations. That, as the noble Lord is well aware, would have to affect not only firms and individuals but also the trade unions. If the noble Lord was prepared to go down that route, he might find that some consensus was possible, but I suspect that he and the Government would not like to see their political masters, the trade unions, denied making the contribution that they wish to make to their party.