Political Parties and Elections Bill

It is quite extraordinary for the Justice Secretary to suggest that there was a consensus that the rules should stay and that they somehow evaporated into thin air. On the contrary, Lord Bach turned down the proposal in Lord Mackay's probing amendment by saying that ““this new formulation””—that is, what the Government introduced—"““represents a considerable improvement on the existing rather ambiguous provisions of the 1983 Act.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 22 November 2000; Vol. 619, c. 904.]" It is to those provisions that the Justice Secretary intends to return.