Political Parties and Elections Bill

I will finish my point first, if I may, because it is important. When, during the discussions, we canvassed the possibility of something so simple and basic that most people might think it already existed—a simple box on a trade union membership application form to be ticked by an applicant wishing to opt either in or out of the political levy and thus the affiliation fee; we left aside the question of which it should be—the Labour party representatives were not even willing to discuss that as an option. As I have said, the idea that this could in any sense be a voluntary donation was blown out of the water. If the right hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) has any influence with his colleagues, as I am sure he has, I ask him to encourage them to revisit the issue. Sorting it out would be a major step forward.