Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill

It gives me no great pleasure to move new clause 2, because, essentially, the Opposition are conc...

I can underline my hon. Friend’s point. All Welsh Assembly Members received a letter from the Wal...

I thank my hon. Friend, the Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, for that accurate comme...

The hon. Gentleman will know that the Government propose to postpone the Northern Ireland Assembl...

The fact that the elections in Northern Ireland are being postponed will provide a greater opport...

I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I did not want to throw cold water over the new cl...

I thank the hon. Lady for her question about the delayed election in Northern Ireland and for her...

The hon. Gentleman’s last point is precisely not dealt with by the new clause. The new clause ask...

The hon. Gentleman makes a fair point, but this is a modest new clause and we are not attempting ...

Does the hon. Gentleman imply that perhaps the Bill will not be ready by May 2015 and should, if ...

If necessary, yes. In all fairness I cannot believe that the Government would seek to soldier on ...

The hon. Gentleman argues in favour of new clause 3, and he has—rightly—mentioned the excellent w...

I am not here to answer for the Electoral Commission. Its emphasis has been on identifying the pr...

I hope my hon. Friend does not dispense with that point too quickly. If we are in the business of...

That is a telling intervention from the Chair of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committe...

Does the hon. Gentleman have the benefit of knowing how many people in the Electoral Commission a...

The honest answer is that I do not know. I asked the Electoral Commission if it would like to ela...

Just by chance, the Electoral Commission came to the House yesterday and offered its services, kn...

I thank my hon. Friend for his informed comments. I am sure Members will appreciate that in the p...

My hon. Friend is making an important and non-partisan point. The campaigning by the Royal Britis...

My hon. Friend makes a truly excellent point. Sadly, the criticism levelled at those of us who ha...

It is my understanding that if the House accepts the Government amendments, which reflect those I...

There has not been broad agreement—in fact, there has been very little agreement—that the Governm...

Had there been a general election in November or December 1913, would the South Wales Miners Fede...

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point and refers to the Senghenydd disaster, in my constituency, ...

It is arguable that the Labour party itself would not have been created had these measures been i...

I am sure that my hon. Friend makes a good point—and my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon, who ...

Many of us in this place are privileged to spend time in developing countries, and when we do so,...

Indeed. We are coming to the end of the rather truncated process of deliberation on the Bill in t...

I want to ask the hon. Gentleman a question about this point of principle. His party, when in gov...

That is a good question, and I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman has asked it. He is right to sa...

We know that those who are fundamentally concerned about part 2 of the Bill do not have any runni...

My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. He has referred succinctly to a large number of issues, whi...

I should like to address my remarks to amendments 4, 5, 6, 10, 11 and 12, which have been include...

I thank the hon. Gentleman and would like to put on record my thanks to other colleagues who sit ...

I was wondering whether at some point the hon. Gentleman might wish to make a speech on the matte...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his succinct intervention, and also for his generous comm...

rose—

I will give way once more.

Before the hon. Gentleman—who is a distinguished member of the Select Committee—ends his speech, ...

If I were a member of the Government faced with such advice from a body on which the Government r...

As the hon. Gentleman implies, there is nothing to stop the Government from saying, at any stage,...

Obviously I do. I am often suspicious of the word “consensus”, but I think that when we are deali...

The hon. Gentleman’s approach is precisely the approach adopted by the Joint Committee on Human R...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. It is invidious to make comparisons, and I know that his is ...

I note the hon. Gentleman’s concern about the word consensus, but is it not sad that there is bro...

I am not going to get into the semantics of the difference between consensus and common agreement...

I share some of the concerns of the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr Chope) around the muddle and...

It is good to follow the hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan). I am still hoping to get to Derry/L...

The right hon. Gentleman has accurately referred to the Electoral Commission’s commentary on new ...

That is why my assumption is that, although the Government might not respond directly by acceptin...

That is often the way.

Yes, it is. The Bill was held in dock for a long time, but then somebody suddenly pressed the but...

Will the right hon. Gentleman outline to the House how he thinks we can have further scrutiny of ...

I made it clear that because this is the second and last day on Report and because we must have T...

Before I tackle new clauses 2 and 3 and the amendments, I welcome the hon. Member for Caerphilly ...

Probably.

Okay. I also welcome the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg), who is making his...

Up until yesterday, the Electoral Commission, which is charged by Government and the House in the...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, which gives me an opportunity to restate the fa...

Surely, the comment from the Deputy Leader of the House depends on clearly differentiating expend...

I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman was in the House in 1999 when PPERA was being debated an...

I thank the Minister for giving way; he is very generous. Before we move on from new clauses 2 an...

I am afraid I am going to disappoint the hon. Gentleman by restating what I have said. We have al...

Is the Deputy Leader of the House therefore saying that he and the Government will listen to the ...

No. The hon. Lady paraphrases me incorrectly. That is not what I said. I said that we would liste...

The right hon. Gentleman says that it is important that people should be able to get up to speed,...

Clearly the Government have made an assessment of the areas where it is possible to prepare in ti...

Going back to the point about people needing to be given time to get up to speed, if clause 30 wa...

That is a challenging question, so I might need to get back to my hon. Friend shortly on it. I th...

rose—

I urge my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch and the hon. Member for Caerphilly not to press...

I will make a small contribution in order to make a request on behalf of those of us who have con...

I will respond to those points, subject to your approval, Mr Deputy Speaker.

I think that would be helpful.

I hope that the hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) will agree that I tend to take many intervent...

Will the Deputy Leader of the House clarify something? If there is a non-party campaign on a legi...

The hon. Gentleman asks a very specific and detailed question. The difficulty in answering it is ...

It is not the Opposition’s intention to press new clauses 2 and 3, on the basis of the commitment...

I beg to move amendment 32, page 12, leave out lines 31 to 33 and insert ‘“where—

(a) the e...

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

Government amendment 33

Ame...

Clause 26 sets out the test that third parties need to meet in order to incur controlled expendit...

The Deputy Leader of the House will have seen the letter today from Sir Stuart Etherington of NCV...

I am aware of that, but I am equally aware that Karl Wilding, the NCVO’s director of public polic...

If the statutory arrangements put in place by the previous Government in the 2000 Act were satisf...

The hon. Gentleman may not have understood. The fact is that we had no intention of changing the ...

In his letter, Sir Stuart Etherington says:

“A health charity could publish a leaflet highl...

If an anti-smoking organisation ran a campaign subsequently adopted by a party, that would not co...

There is another point. Back in 2010, the Royal British Legion ran a campaign called “Time to do ...

I thank my hon. Friend for that point. That campaign was clearly run on the basis of PPERA, which...

rose—

I will give way once more, then I need to make progress.

Will the Minister respond to the specific point raised earlier by my hon. Friend the Member for F...

What applies in Northern Ireland could equally apply in Scotland, England or Wales. It would all ...

Is not the point that all the organisations that we describe in these case studies do not seek th...

That is absolutely the point. I would make a stronger point—in all the conversations that I have ...

Why change it then?

I will come to that. Others in the House will know from experience that campaigners make their vi...

The Minister made a good point in stating that the Royal British Legion would not want to be asso...

The hon. Gentleman is inviting me to judge whether that campaign would fall foul of the rules wit...

The Electoral Commission has made clear its view that it should enforce the rules already laid do...

The Electoral Commission has produced guidance that the different organisations have to work with...

I recognise that some progress has been made on the precise wording of the clause, but there rema...

I do. It would be foolish of me to say that some charities are not concerned about this issue. Cl...

The theme of the Deputy Leader of the House’s remarks is that there is considerable misunderstand...

What is reasonable and appropriate is for us, as a Government, to set out very clearly our intent...

My right hon. Friend has set out all the things that should be of reassurance, which is very help...

I can reassure my right hon. Friend that the doors of the Leader of the House’s office and mine a...

Although the Deputy Leader of the House has said that this issue is clearly to do with candidates...

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. My issue with his concern is that that terminology i...

I welcome the fact that the Government are in listening mode on these issues. Given that Governme...

I am not aware of a list of defined organisations. If hon. Members look at the list of third-part...

May I first put on record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly (Wayne David) and...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will give way when I have made this point. This Government—[Interruption.] Do I get a permanent...

The hon. Gentleman will know that no agreement has been reached on party funding, but the Liberal...

I will come to that, but I am not aware of a problem. When an hon. Friend intervened, we did not ...

One thing that puzzles me is that, during previous debates on electoral legislation in the House,...

The hon. Gentleman moves the debate to party political spending, which is not addressed in the Bi...

I listened to the whole of the hon. Gentleman’s point about the legal advice because I wanted to ...

I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman, who attempted to improve this appalling Bill in Committee. H...

Is not the point that if senior counsel extensively examines legislation and suggests that big ga...

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right that one risk is that the Bill will result in litigation...

I am afraid that the phrase I have repeated many times will get repeated again. Does the hon. Gen...

If that is the case, why are we having this conversation and debate? If there is no issue, why ha...

Each member of the EC having to monitor 50 constituencies is a breathtaking statistic. I hope my ...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. My recollection is that it was not 12 people, but six, so the...

It is a great pleasure to be given the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I welcome Governm...

The hon. Gentleman raises a point that I and my colleagues on the Labour Front Bench have also ra...

The hon. Gentleman might be surprised to know that my communication with Front Benchers is not as...

In the 12 months leading up to a general election, given the differing views and policies of the ...

Most charities campaign for improvement. I am the chairman of a large number of all-party parliam...

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman can answer a question that the Minister failed to answer. He has just ...

I am afraid that I cannot give the hon. Gentleman such an example. I would love to do so, but tha...

I am listening carefully to the hon. Gentleman, who made a particularly pertinent and sensible sp...

I imagine that I am already on such a list of Members of Parliament—

It is in the Whips Office.

I am definitely on a list in the Whips Office, as my hon. Friend says. I would love to write to t...

I am sure that the Whips do have my hon. Friend’s name on a list, but that is a matter of public ...

My hon. Friend is indeed a great friend. He is no doubt on a number of those lists with me, but p...

With the hon. Gentleman’s best interest at heart, will he have a discussion with the RSPCA? I wou...

I have great respect for the Chairman of the Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Ref...

The hon. Gentleman does not know what the outcome would be—neither do I and neither do Front Benc...

I take the hon. Gentleman’s warning to heart, and I will take it away and review it more closely ...

I should begin by declaring an interest, which is in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests...

The Deputy Leader of the House made it clear in relation to amendment 101 that not only will thes...

I will get to that, but what I will say now is that this is an old trick. The civil service has g...

The hon. Gentleman mentioned Pandora’s box. He is Chair of the Political and Constitutional Refor...

Well, we were just being serious for a moment there. The hon. Gentleman normally joins me in bein...

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen), and we often a...

In that case, in what way is the intention described in Government amendment 32 any less subjecti...

I counsel my hon. Friend to read the many excellent briefings from the Electoral Commission, whic...

What a straw man the hon. Gentleman has just raised. Does he not realise that that is all avoided...

I have the greatest respect for the hon. Lady, but I fundamentally disagree with her assertion, b...

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman inadvertently missed a page between those two quotations, becau...

I happily agree that in an ideal world there would have been pre-legislative scrutiny and a consi...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (John Thurso...

I am sure that if the Government respond to my hon. Friend’s points they will assure the House th...

Indeed; that is the final point that I want to make. At this very late juncture, I implore the Go...

It is a pleasure to contribute to this debate, and particularly to follow my hon. Friend the Memb...

In a perfect world, how much extra time does the hon. Lady think would be required for a consulta...

I believe that good practice would be 12 months. Charities are very mindful of the rules that hav...

Just to help my hon. Friend and the hon. Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart), my Committee has sai...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention. His is a reasonable offer and I encourage t...

I spoke on Second Reading last month, since when the Leader of the House has tabled a large numbe...

Among the many anomalies in the Bill are the cross-border implications —England, Wales and Scotla...

Order. May I make the point that, I have noticed in my two spells chairing the debate, interventi...

My hon. Friend is right to raise that concern. It occurs to me that, no matter how complicated a ...

With the leave of the House, Mr Speaker, I should like to respond to a couple of points.

Th...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

I will not give way because I have only one minute to complete my remarks.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The right hon. Gentleman is misleading the House inadvertently a...

The hon. Gentleman has made his point, to which there is no requirement for a reply. The Deputy L...

I have noted the hon. Gentleman’s point. The Opposition spokesman said that he would support amen...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

I am afraid that I am due to complete my remarks. I am happy to discuss the hon. Gentleman’s poin...

I beg to move amendment 102, page 13, line 37, leave out clause 27.

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

Amendment 59, in clause 27, page ...

Following on from that interesting vote, I should like to point out that had 19 more colleagues v...

It is my understanding that clause 27 relates not to actual expenditure, but to the point at whic...

I am afraid I do not have a view on that. Being the Chair of a Select Committee is almost like be...

I was listening to the hon. Gentleman with great interest, but is he seriously suggesting that at...

I am not suggesting anything other than that the Woodland Trust and many other organisations are ...

The House of Commons Library did a very impressive briefing on third-party spending at the 2010 g...

I do not pretend to speak for all those people—and I certainly do not speak for the friends of th...

I endorse the comments that have just been made and to say this is, perhaps, the piece of propose...

The hon. Lady makes a clear and succinct point. The sad fact is that this provision is a mystery;...

Third parties may campaign in a relevant election up to a particular threshold without being subj...

What is the reasoning for halving the expenditure threshold from £10,000 to £5,000 in England but...

I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. The reason is simply that the Government wanted to a...

The Deputy Leader of the House says that the Government wanted a figure that was straightforward....

Order. Before the Deputy Leader of the House responds, I ought to emphasise what should be appare...

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for that guidance. The answer to the hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) i...

I wonder why, if there was a particular situation relating to a particular constituency, it would...

I would have hoped that the hon. Gentleman would agree that election campaigns were about politic...

Order. I say very gently to the Deputy Leader of the House, to whose contribution I am listening ...

Indeed, I will do so.

Under subsection (6), only a proportion of the expenditure—£5,850—may...

I thank the Deputy Leader of the House for being so co-operative.

It is unfortunate that the Deputy Leader of the House has not had the opportunity to address my v...

I put on the record once again the declarations of non-financial interests that I made in Committ...

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.

I thank Members from both sides of...

rose—

Order. Before the hon. Gentleman intervenes, may I say for advisory purposes that I know of half ...

On Second Reading I listed a number of lobbying scandals that have decimated and dominated politi...

The character of each of those scandals is of a particular kind. We are setting out to ensure tha...

There can be no serious objection to parts 1 and 3 of the Bill, but there are clearly continuing ...

I hope I will be clear, just as I thought my right hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House was...

The Leader of the House is being most generous in taking interventions. May I ask him to address ...

Each has its own particular characteristics and the Speaker will forgive me if I do not respond t...

On Second Reading, I said that this was one of the worst Bills any Government had brought before ...

rose—

Order. We have fewer than 20 minutes left and five Members wish to catch my eye. If we can divide...

I shall speak briefly. For the first time, I shall take no interventions, so that other Members g...

I think that people will feel that the Bill is a fraud. I genuinely believe that they will be dis...

My hon. Friend is making a strong point. Does it also concern him that the rich and powerful who ...

Indeed. The Bill will have no effect on the abuses that have been listed by my hon. Friends today...

Let me begin by reiterating what I said on Second Reading. I remain a great fan of pre-legislativ...

When my Select Committee belatedly considered this Bill we fairly quickly saw that it was a car c...

I have tried to sit through most of the proceedings on this Bill but unfortunately yesterday I ha...

I wish to make a few brief comments. First, I say to the hon. Members for Wallasey (Ms Eagle) and...

I ask the Serjeant at Arms to investigate the delay in the Aye Lobby.