Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I apologise: at Third Reading today. It is an important issue, and I wait with interest to hear what the Government have to say. In the course of my telephone conversation with the Minister last Friday, one of his officials, plainly reflecting policy, said that either the Electoral Commission or the broadcaster—I cannot recall which—had not yet decided whether it was going to be permissible, in its book, for a party to say in its broadcast whether it supported AV or not. In other words, the broadcasters’ committee that was going to determine what was acceptable had not yet made up its mind whether a political party, in a party political broadcast, could say, ““Our political party supports AV and we urge you to do so as well””. I respectfully submit that it is right for Parliament rather than a committee of broadcasters to decide this matter, and therefore I invite the House to support the amendment.