Greater London Authority Bill

We have been here before, my Lords; it is still the same issue. While I appreciate the nuance, the noble Baroness is saying ““Let the next election take place, and if the Mayor is re-elected for a second time, then that should in fact be the end of his attempts””. Well, we had the argument before, which is that rather than by legislative device, as this is, we would remove the opportunity for the people of London to elect their Mayor. They would not have the opportunity to do that. So, if the Liberal Democrat Benches are suggesting that there ought to be limits on the extent of powers, where do we start and finish? We may certainly consider something along the lines of ““No party shall be elected as the Government more than twice””. In recent years, and in the memory of most people here, that would have seriously affected the will of the people to elect a Conservative Government in the 1980s and 1990s. It would certainly have affected the ability of the people of this country to elect Labour, or to re-elect and re-elect it again. I honestly am puzzled about why this device should be taken. When I spoke on this matter last week, I mentioned that as far as the Conservatives were concerned, they did not hesitate when they were bothered by the activity of the GLC in the early 1980s. By diktat, they simply passed into their manifesto an amendment that extinguished the GLC at the drop of a hat. That was wrong, because the people of London had no opportunity; it took more than 10 years and a change of government to Labour to realise that London needed a government. So, I do not fall out on the issue, which is one of principle, and I appreciate that the noble Baroness said that this will allow the Mayor, if the people of London wish it, to be elected a third time. But if they want to do that for the fourth time—and he has a record upon which to stand, and the support in London—I see no reason why he ought not to be re-elected, provided he is a candidate. This amendment should be resisted.