Electoral Administration Bill

I am grateful for this debate. I reconfirm the approach that the Government will take, both in terms of how we deal with these issues in your Lordships’ House at Report stage and more generally. As we know, my noble and learned friend has written to the leaders of the political parties and we will be setting up discussions as soon as possible. As he said on Monday, this affects all of us. I agree with his wish—which fits in with what the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, said—that the Government, political parties and the Electoral Commission will be able to work constructively together to find a solution which allows for transparency and fairness. I agree entirely with that being a central and critical part of the discussions. But, as noble Lords also know, this came from the Committee for Standards in Public Life and we have followed its recommendations. The last word I would ever use to the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, is ““na&-uml;ve””. We have identified, quite clearly, a gap that we need to close. There is nothing between us in recognising the importance of that; nor, indeed, in recognising the importance of confidence being the watchword for whatever we seek to do. We will have to look carefully, of course, at loans. We will have to look also at guarantees—another point made by noble Lords—and look at the definitions that we are seeking within what we do so that we can address the question of banks, both at home and abroad. I am very aware that my noble and learned friend is keen to meet and discuss those issues as soon as possible so that, from my perspective—for very obvious reasons—we can bring forward an amendment which I hope will find favour with the Committee and can be agreed to. I know that the right honourable gentleman the Leader of the Opposition has written to the Prime Minister and has enclosed a paper written by Andrew Tyrie for him to read about the broader questions which will form part of Sir Hayden Phillips’s review. There are, of course, issues that go beyond the question of loans and how we tackle party funding and financing for the future. Linked to that are issues upon which we are seeking to find a consensus, as best we can, on the whole question of House of Lords reform. As we have indicated, the Joint Committee is looking to consider and codify the powers of the House of Lords, and the question of a free vote on its composition will be an important part of that consideration. We think we are in a position where we have in place the different elements that we need to pursue in order to deal with the issues that have been raised, and I very much look forward to our further debates. But, of course, as well as the formal representations made to my noble and learned friend—which are being followed up, I think, today to decide with whom he should meet, and I shall attend those meetings—I hope that any noble Lord who has a particular view will take the opportunity to talk either with myself or other colleagues so that we can feed in as much information as possible—although, of course, the major political parties will be at the core of our discussions.