Elections Bill

My Lords, this is a particularly difficult issue for me. I strongly support the deletion of Claus...

It is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, with his passion and analysis, ...

Can the noble Lord enlighten the House by telling us how many results of mayoral elections would ...

The noble Lord had better ask the Minister; I do not have those figures, but I am happy to dig th...

My Lords, I put my name to this stand part debate. When I was in journalism, people used to say o...

My Lords, my name is on some amendments in this group. As Members of the Committee will know, I a...

Were these official interparty discussions or informal exchanges?

These were exchanges on and off the Floor of the House of Commons.

That would have been a m...

In European elections, for example, if you are top of your party’s list, it is pretty close to be...

The noble Lord and I will have conversations about list systems and non-list systems off the Floo...

I will allow the noble Lord on my right to speak first.

No, no. Go on.

5.45 pm

I know he will interrupt me anyway.

I declare an interest as a vice-president of the Local ...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, arguing for consensual polit...

I said “at length”. I assure the noble Lord that I can discuss proportional representation at ver...

I shall certainly follow the injunction not to speak at length, but I cannot resist responding to...

I thank the noble Lord for the invitation. He will remember that this was the first occasion on w...

Well, to bring Dominic Cummings into it sounds like a good argument to a point that I was not dis...

How does the noble Lord explain the fact that, when you have a PR system—it does not matter in wh...

I was listening carefully to the noble Baroness’s speech, and she seemed to be suggesting that qu...

Could the noble Lord perhaps address the point I made in my contribution? Whatever your views abo...

I am the wrong person to ask about directly elected mayors or police and crime commissioners beca...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, with whom I completely agree. ...

I was quoting what the Electoral Commission said.

I hear what the noble Lord has said, but the difference between the spoilt ballot papers in the l...

Is the logic of what the noble Baroness is saying that electors in Northern Ireland and Scotland ...

They can vote them out, but it is much more obscure—the link is much less direct. The supplementa...

My Lords, I have been affected by the debate this evening. I was intending to speak—if I was goin...

I did not argue in my speech for bringing proportional representation forward at all.

I thank the noble Baroness for that and accept what she says. I am thinking more widely of the de...

Does the noble Lord agree that I also made no argument to extend proportional representation? My ...

I listened closely to the noble Lord’s speech, and it is perfectly true that he made a very long ...

My Lords, I used to be a full supporter of first past the post, very much in the spirit of the re...

My Lords, I rise to speak on behalf of my noble friend Lord Shipley, who has Amendment 144C in hi...

2022!

Sorry, 2022. It feels as if this debate started last year.

The YouGov tracker looks at a nu...

Could the noble Lord remind us of his sample size? Mine was 19.2 million.

That was 11 years ago. I am trying to point out to the noble Lord that people’s views change. I a...

Could the noble Lord answer the second question, which was: what type of PR was wanted? That is t...

I support Amendment 140, which is about setting up a citizens’ assembly to go through this questi...

My Lords, back in the middle of the last century when I was Minister of State for Home Affairs in...

My Lords, I want to make one very simple point related to what we are talking about. I agree enti...

I should confess to having been a supporter of electoral reform for many years—since the 1970s, w...

My noble friend did not say that at the time.

It was said in the councils of which I was part that it would be a good idea to shake up conventi...

I do not normally draw attention to this but my noble friend and I were both working in No. 10 at...

I have no doubt about that; that is why we would not have mentioned it to my noble friend. I am t...

My Lords, it is a great pleasure always to follow my noble friend Lord Liddle, even though I woul...

My Lords, as a very new Member of the House, I had not intended to take part in Committee on this...

My Lords, I want to make a brief contribution on Amendment 144C in the name of my noble friend Lo...

If I heard aright, the noble Lord said that I stood in the election of 2010, but I am afraid that...

How very wise the noble Lord was to miss that particular commitment, is all I can say. A number o...

My Lords, it has been a lengthy debate. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, that I have not pr...

My Lords, the amendment which was introduced in the Commons and is now Clause 11 was a Christmas-...

I will come to that, my Lords. If the Committee will be indulgent, I think it has heard quite a l...

I just make one point of clarification. It is not an opinion poll but a tracker of opinion over t...

My Lords, whether it is a poll or a tracker, the noble Lord is welcome to look at it. I will pers...

My Lords—

If I may say so, the noble Lord had a good go. I will give him one go.

If you make a comment about what somebody said, you need them to be able to come back and say you...

One might have thought, listening to the noble Lord, that he was talking about his liking for PR,...

The noble Lord is characterising my vote. It was against the alternative vote system and not for ...

My Lords, I do not know whether the noble Lord has been here all through the debate, but I mainta...

My Lords, with respect, the Minister partially reported what the Electoral Commission said. It po...

My Lords, the noble Lord says let us have a look at 2016. The noble Lord also said not to pay any...

The Minister made an important point in his argument about the 2011 referendum. That was on first...

My Lords, I am speaking to what is before the Committee at the moment. As far as the Scottish and...

I am sure that the Minister knows that this is copied from the SNP amendment in the Commons. One ...

The noble Lord has completely failed to answer the core question. He has thought about this amend...

My Lords, I do not want to get into any discussion at all about what sort of electoral system is ...

I am sorry that the noble Baroness—for whom I have the greatest possible respect, as she knows—fe...

I have the greatest respect for the Minister but—with the greatest respect—that really did not ad...

Moved by

Lord Wallace of Saltaire

137: After Clause 11, insert the following new Clau...

My Lords, Amendments 137 and 138 are grouped with Amendment 143 in the name of the noble Lord, Lo...

My Lords, I support Amendments 137 and 138, to which I have added my name, and oppose Amendment 1...

My Lords, I follow the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, and the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, with pleasu...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 143, which has received such wholesome support from other Me...

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Holmes of Richmond. I would have pre-empted him, bu...

My Lords, I am afraid that I am going to strike a discordant note because I invite my noble frien...

Would the noble Lord agree that young people look at what their interests are? Maybe if the Conse...

I am not saying anything about that. I am just saying that I do not think the case has been made ...

I take the noble Lord’s point, because there are all sorts of polls and this is in the Library br...

My Lords, I simply venture to suggest that, at the moment, the priority should be to assist and e...

My Lords, I will try to be brief. The Labour Party has supported and continues to support lowerin...

Too young for the Lords!

Well, there you go. I am still below the average age—just. The important point is that they are n...

My Lords, I fear I cannot accept these amendments, although, having been mildly disobliging on th...

My Lords, in withdrawing this amendment, I point out that, if we are saying that there is a probl...