My Lords, I should apologise to Members who were anticipating that by now we might be moving on to the QSD. It is certainly not at my insistence that this group of amendments should be taken at 1.41 pm. However, as we have been gathering from all sides of the Committee during discussions this morning, the constituency limits, which are the subject of Clause 28 and therefore of this group, are very important and of central significance to the Bill.
We have heard that the Government did not bring this legislation forward to affect charity campaigning or to stop NGOs having their say about policy issues. The purpose of the Bill is to stop big money flooding into constituencies in the year before an election in an
attempt to, in one direction, augment or to subvert candidates’ own spending limits. As I have already had occasion to say to the Committee, even if we in this House did not think that was important, there will be Members at the other end of the building who would think that it was extremely important—not least, perhaps, those pro-Europe Conservative MPs and candidates who might well be targeted by substantial sums of money, let alone others who may be in a similar position and a target for single-issue campaigning by individuals, multimillionaires or organisations.
Clause 28 is very important but it is by no means perfect, as has already been made apparent by many noble Lords this morning. The Bill talks about activity that has “significant effects” in a particular constituency or group of constituencies. The difficulty is that some of the groups that we have all met might, for example, hold a rally in one constituency which would have an effect on a great many others. I recall chairing just such a constituency rally, but if it had that significance for neighbouring constituencies in Cornwall, it would be very difficult to allocate the actual expenditure in any particular way. It would be very difficult to see what relative effect this was going to have in different adjoining constituencies. Frankly, as a former candidate, I rarely worried about somebody holding a meeting in the neighbouring constituency—or, for that matter, even in my own constituency—in terms of that affecting the outcome of the election. What affects elections most strongly is direct communication with electors and, as has already been mentioned this morning, the means of doing that have become more effective and cheaper in recent years. That is what can really sway a constituency result one way or another.
1.45 pm
Our lead amendment, Amendment 170A, seeks to make the constituency limit about just those direct activities. The Electoral Commission cites our amendment as having “potential benefits”. It would define the limit as dealing with election material—leaflets, letters and so on—sent to electors, in one way or another, through their doors. It would deal also with what is called “push” polling. That is where someone rings up to say, “Are you aware of the Labour Party’s record on crashing the economy?” or, for example, “Are you aware of the Conservative Party’s plans to give inheritance tax cuts to billionaires?”. Some may think that that is entirely objective and legitimate polling. It does happen and becomes increasingly effective—needless to say, there is very effective push polling in relation to my own party. It would also deal with ordinary canvassing by telephone. All these things cost money but make a real difference in constituency campaigns and affect the outcomes of elections.
The groups that I have met—I am sure it would apply to others—look relieved when I suggest this amendment to them. It would make things simpler for those who are caught by the definition because, where telephone calls are being made or letters or leaflets sent to someone’s home, you would know it is a campaign targeted at that particular geographical area and deliberately trying to affect the outcome in that constituency. There can be no uncertainty about that. The amendment sticks to the vital policy intention to
have a constituency limit but makes its operation much simpler. As I have said, I am pleased to note that the Electoral Commission, with which I have not agreed about everything, finds this a very helpful and practical solution to an otherwise rather tricky problem.
My noble friend Lord Greaves and I have different amendments, which get rid of the obscure reference to a percentage of national units and instead make clear, in the Bill, precisely what the pound sign applies to, rather than having a percentage figure. Again, that would be a simplification. There is a case of course for these limits to be lower than suggested, and the opportunity to hear that case is there in Amendments 170C and 170E. I am not sure whether they will receive much support in your Lordships’ Committee but the issue of the appropriate limit remains extremely important for the whole legitimacy and effectiveness of the Bill.
Amendment 170F would permit the limits to be changed later by statutory instrument. One of the campaigners we met said that he thought that the limits should only be changeable upwards in this way, to avoid any suggestion that voices could later be quashed by a quick fix. That is a fair suggestion and I hope that, when we come back on Report, we may decide that any such changes should be limited to upward changes. However, the principle that these limits may not be perfect is not a new idea and worth acknowledging with an order-making power. That would of course be a much more limited power than the power currently in the Bill to change the whole of Schedule 3 by statutory instrument, something that we will deal with later and which may raise the whole question of a Henry VIII power.
Amendment 170G sets out to acknowledge the clear difference between, on the one hand, a millionaire walking into a constituency to spend lots of money swaying the result in the direction that he favours and, on the other hand, a local group raising lots of money from small donations. That surely is different in principle and it would be very helpful if we could find a way of differentiating between the two. Our amendment here would allow for the local groups to spend more money than the millionaires, provided the money could be raised locally. For the provision to work, they would have to record all those donations—not just those below the present recording threshold—and declare them. That will be their choice but a local group might well be prepared to do just that.
Extra transparency and local fundraising would mean extra spending capacity. We should all recognise that idea as being legitimate, and we therefore wanted to float it at this stage. It introduces no extra complexity for those who keep to the normal constituency limit proposed in the Bill but gives flexibility to those who think that they could exceed it with a genuine, local, grass-roots campaign. The Government should endorse that principle, even if the amendment itself could be improved.
Our amendments in this group are designed to help make the constituency limit do what it is intended to do but without doing what it is not intended to do. Our approach avoids bogging people down needlessly in accounting for things that do not matter very much at a constituency level. It adds much needed clarity to the
whole concept of a constituency limit and acknowledges the role of local campaigning and local fundraising. In exactly the same spirit as the noble and right reverend Lord’s commission, this is a practical package. It could be implemented and is workable, but it meets the extremely important objective of this legislation, which is to ensure that we still have proper controls over spending at the constituency level. I beg to move.