Political Parties and Elections Bill

The amendment is prompted by a particular electoral circumstance. It is not intended as an aspersion on Northern Ireland practice. It is prompted by a circumstance and intended to be proof against it. It is a fact of historical political experience both in Ireland and elsewhere that there have been occasions—rare but occasional—in our history when someone elected has changed parties after the election. My amendment, in which I have neither emotional capital tied up nor any pride in its precise wording, is intended to protect the electoral process from the rare consequences of someone changing sides, under certain rules, although I have no further certainty about the amendment’s efficacy to achieve that objective. The Minister has been good enough to draw my attention to the problem created under the present wording of the Bill by the decision of not one but two parties to nominate the same candidate in the European parliamentary elections in Northern Ireland. That patently also complicates my amendment. Resolving that other complication must await the Government's announcement of how they will resolve the complication just stated in Clause 19. I apologise if I have sounded somewhat Byzantine, but I beg to move.