Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am listening to the right hon. Gentleman with care. When the 2000 Act was going through, everybody thought that it provided for comprehensive controls on spending at a national and local level, not only within the specific, typically four-week election period but outside that period too. That was one point that was made by the late Lord Mackay. He said that the key, for him, was that a candidate's election, for funding purposes,"““should start from the first moment that he or she, or anyone on their behalf...takes any action to promote their candidature for an election at which they are subsequently nominated. It could not be simpler.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 22 November 2000; Vol. 619, c. 903.]" Surely the right hon. Gentleman is not now arguing that in 2000 it was assumed that we would end up where we have ended up, with national campaign expenditure controlled for the 12 months leading up to a general election, while candidate spending, far from being controlled more than it was before 2000, is controlled less and only for the last four weeks of an election.