Elections Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Collins of Highbury, has ranged rather more widely than the conten...

Can I just ask the noble Baroness a question? If she looks back over the last 20 years, or even o...

I do not think that is a relevant question because I do not believe the statement is going to be ...

I am sorry to interrupt but I think this is an important dialogue to have. We bandy around the wo...

I am going to let my noble friend the Minister answer all this in detail because I am not a gover...

My Lords, these amendments may lead to some mitigation of the effects of the Government taking co...

My Lords, since the Minister will no doubt address the question that the noble Lord, Lord Collins...

My Lords, may I add a further supplementary question? In the Written Ministerial Statement, the M...

My Lords, it is interesting to follow the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, who says t...

My Lords, if I may respond to that, I was careful to say that it a broad presumption of five year...

If noble Lords will allow me, the point I was raising was the basis on which the noble Baroness s...

My Lords, on consultation, may I just come back to the Government’s response to the committee’s f...

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord opposite for tabling these amendments. Let me say that ...

I was intimately involved in Tower Hamlets. I was general secretary and suspended the mayor from ...

My Lords, I hope the statement and some of the things that the Government suggest might be in it ...

May I interrupt again? The Minister jumps from the specific to the general and keeps saying that ...

I appreciate the Minister giving way. I hope that his response will include a little more about w...

I was answering the question I was asked in Committee; I was asked in a supplementary question, a...

Before the noble Lord sits down, I wish to say that one of the issues that I raised, and why thes...

When one looks at the areas which are covered in the indicative proposals, I do not think that th...

Just on that last point—I keep interrupting, but this is Committee and I think it is important th...

The permissibility of donations is a matter of the law of the land, and we will be considering th...

Before the Minister sits down, I must press him further to answer the two questions that I asked....

My Lords, the Government are setting out a structure in which there would be a regular review. As...

Could the noble Lord answer the second point: why, regardless of any change, would you wish to ch...

My Lords, I am sure that any Government’s preferred position would be to consult, but the Governm...

My Lords, this has been an extremely useful exercise. Rather than answers, we have more questions...

Moved by

Lord Collins of Highbury

4: Clause 14, page 21, line 15, at end insert—

It is me again. Here, we are trying to better understand what the Minister means when he repeats ...

My Lords, I am going to start by banking an agreement with the noble Lord, Lord Collins of Highbu...

I accept the point the noble Baroness is making, but I think everyone in the House is always conc...

I completely understand that point, but the noble Lord is raising something much broader, which g...

My Lords, we can all agree that the Government are constantly overreaching themselves and trying ...

My Lords, the merits of the amendment are secondary to the replies that the Minister gave on the ...

My Lords, just on that point on consultation, I suggest that the Minister, when he responds, thin...

My Lords, we had a debate on the previous group. Despite the beguiling invitation of the noble Lo...

The Minister is relying so strongly on the case that Parliament would have final control over whe...

My Lords, again, I am not going to be led into a wide and potentially very interesting debate on ...

The question has been asked better than I was trying to put it. The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, ...

My Lords, the noble Lord confuses various things. The constitutional position is as I set out. Wi...

Let us be clear about this. We have had the Leader of this House challenge this House when it has...

I note what the noble Lord opposite says. I believe that I have set out the correct constitutiona...

On a straight point of information, if an emergency statement is produced without consultation, c...

My Lords, any statement has to be treated in the light in which Parliament enacts statements to b...

Once again, my Lords, the debate has generated more areas of concern than it has put at ease. Und...

Moved by

Lord True

5: Clause 14, page 22, line 14, leave out “Public Administration a...

Moved by

Lord Collins of Highbury

7: Clause 14, page 22, line 18, at end insert—

I want to preface my remarks about these amendments, because they relate to a fundamental ingredi...

My Lords, I have the great privilege of being a member of the Select Committee chaired by the nob...

My Lords, I always have some empathy with the noble Lord opposite, who I greatly respect, when he...

Could the Minister confirm that, when he referred to the Speaker’s commission just now, he meant ...

My Lords, that was not a correct characterisation. I meant to say, “the Speaker’s Committee on th...

I thank the noble Lord for his response to this debate. Consultation will be an important part of...

Moved by

Lord True

10: Clause 14, page 22, line 34, leave out from beginning to end o...

Moved by

Lord True

15: Clause 14, page 25, line 16, leave out “Public Administration ...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, regrets that he cannot be here to introduce this stand pa...

My Lords, I think the whole House is grateful to the noble and learned Lord for the forensic way ...

With the indulgence of the House, when I was explaining about the noble Lords, Lord Blunkett and ...

My Lords, it was a fantastic dissection of these clauses by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judg...

My Lords, I hesitate to rise to speak, given the entrenched views already expressed, both in this...

I am sure that the noble Baroness believes firmly that the Government she so strongly supports wo...

At the end of the day, there is a requirement for Parliament to agree. That is an important part ...

My Lords, I regret that, like the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, I was unable to attend the Second ...

My Lords, in considering the Government’s plans to take more direct control of the Electoral Comm...

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, drew a parallel between the Electoral Commission and O...

My Lords, I am somewhat conflicted in this debate, to the extent that I, unlike a number of noble...

My Lords, I was not insinuating that other political parties had played fast and loose in that pa...

I am sorry; I did not make myself clear. I was referring not specifically to that election but to...

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for giving way. His complaints against the Elector...

The noble Lord intervenes at a highly apposite time. I said at the start of my contribution that ...

Just for the record, I am not Lord Kennedy.

I am very conscious of that. I did not necessarily say that the Lords to whom I was referring wer...

My Lords, I am very glad to follow the noble Lord. He has delivered a message to people in his pa...

My Lords, I will follow on from the points made very powerfully by the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell. ...

My Lords, I rise very briefly to draw three points to the Government’s attention. The first is pr...

My Lords, this has certainly been a very interesting debate. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Wallace...

My Lords, of course I listen carefully. Having listened carefully, I infer that your Lordships vi...

Perhaps I might clarify this point for the Minister. I did not say it applied to any public body....

I respectfully disagree with the noble Lord on that. The Electoral Commission is a public body an...

I must challenge this. The Minister keeps saying that there is not a power. Can he explain new Se...

Yes, my Lords, new Section 4A(3)(b) allows the statement to contain—I am repeating what the noble...

My Lords, the Minister suggested that he did not use the precautionary principle in his speeches ...

No, it was a humorous remark for the Committee. The precautionary principle is one that the Europ...

Can the Minister at least address another point made by my noble friend, on the effect that these...

I accept what the noble Lord said on that point—and, indeed, what the noble Viscount has said. Wh...

I hope that the Minister can answer the direct point from the noble Lord, Lord Hayward. Although ...

Absolutely not—and I very much hope not. I come to your Lordships’ House to listen to your Lordsh...

I am very grateful to everybody who has taken part in this debate. It has been a very interesting...

Moved by

Baroness Hayman of Ullock

17: Clause 17, page 27, line 33, after “money” ins...

My Lords, I imagine that, compared with the previous debate, this one will be a lot shorter and s...

My Lords, I support the amendment, probing as it is, from the noble Baroness. As she quite rightl...

My Lords, it seems that it is time for a change of horse—although it is fair to say that the high...

I thank the Minister for his response and look forward to his letter. I thank him for agreeing to...

I rise to oppose the proposition that Clause 17 should stand part of the Bill.

Clause 17 is...

My Lords, I welcome the noble Lord’s intent to oppose Clause 17 standing part of the Bill and to ...

I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this brief debate and I welcome the noble Lord, L...

Moved by

Lord Rennard

18: After Clause 17, insert the following new Clause—

“Fi...

My Lords, one of the problems with the Bill is that the Government failed to make any changes at ...

My Lords, I wish to speak to Amendment 19 in my name, which has been grouped with Amendment 18. W...

My Lords, it is quite sweet to have these two amendments in the same group. I am sure the noble L...

My Lords, I rise to support my noble friend and Amendment 18 and to thank the noble Lord, Lord Yo...

My Lords, I first say how much I am enjoying hearing the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, expre...

My Lords, I am happy to respond to Amendments 18 and 19, which were spoken to very eloquently by ...

I will just say that there are Greens all over the world, and I have not popped in just for this ...

I have been corrected on two points, and I am glad that the world is full of Greens, I am sure, d...

I thank the Minister for his kind remarks at the outset of his reply. I might have hoped that the...