I do not always get things right, it should be said—that is a well-established fact. In this case, I am more than happy to apologise to the
hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) via the hon. Lady, who represents a seat in Northern Ireland but is as British and, quite possibly, more British than I am.
I commend amendment 48, which was tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen), who chairs the Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform. It meets many of the concerns that many ordinary members of the public would express if they saw the legislation, and certainly the concerns expressed by Members on both sides of the House. Preparing someone to appear before a Select Committee is lobbying just as much as other activities. When I worked for the BBC we regularly acted out appearances before the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport. I always got to play Gerald Kaufman, which was one of the more enjoyable parts of my working career.
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We need to catch more of the lobbying business than is currently caught in the Bill, and amendment 48 does so. In particular, it removes a loophole in clause 2 by deleting the phrase,
“in the course of a business”.
It looks innocuous, but it is a massive loophole.
There are many other loopholes to which I have referred, and some hon. Members have referred to amendments that they hope will be accepted. As I said to the hon. Member for St Albans, I like new clause 5, but there is one problem in it, as it pretends that MPs are Ministers. If it were redrafted, it would meet the Bill’s requirements rather better. Finally, if the Government know that the legislation is so flawed that they have had to table many amendments—we are considering 15 Government amendments in this first group—it would make far more sense to say, “Let’s draw stumps. We all want a piece of legislation. Some parts of the Bill may be serviceable. Let’s give it to the Select Committee and suggest that it draft proper legislation that will work and meet the requirements of the whole House.” If we did so, we would enact a piece of legislation that would last not just until the general election but beyond and make our democratic system stronger rather than weaker.