I was just referring to the explanatory statement. It is very helpful that the Public Bill Office now publishes explanatory statements, as it makes it much easier for us to understand amendments.
3.45 pm
Amendment 53 would require the Electoral Commission to ensure that the total spend by either side during the referendum campaign was broadly equal by limiting the number of participants, taking into account money spent by business, government, the European Commission and the campaigns themselves. My amendment—I am prepared to take advice from the Government if it is defective in any way—would ensure broad equality of spending, which is surely what we all want.
The current regulatory regime on referendums is provided by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The grant of public money to a designated organisation cannot exceed £600,000 and the grant of public money to both sides must be of equal amount. The yes and no campaigns can therefore spend about £500,000 each. That is perfectly fair and we all understand that. However, on top of that limit, extra funding is permitted to political parties based on their share of the vote at the last parliamentary election. That means the Conservative party will be allowed to spend £5 million, the Labour party £4 million, the UK Independence party £3 million and the Liberal Democrats £2 million. The Scottish National party will also have pro rata expenditure.
The current presumption—we must assume this will happen—is that the leaderships of the Conservative party, the Labour party, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats will be in the yes camp. Labour is keeping its options open, but we know it is pretty well committed to being in the yes camp with the SNP and the Liberals. It is also a pretty fair presumption that the Conservative party will be there as well. My problem—this is a really serious issue that needs to be addressed by the House—is that the official yes campaign could have a funding pot of up to £17 million, as opposed to a limit of £8 million for the no camp. That is a huge difference in resources and could well affect the outcome. Even if that does not affect the outcome, it will lead people to feel that this will not be a fair campaign. On top of those amounts, any registered participant will be allowed to spend £500,000. The total spending cap comes to £25 million overall.