Political Parties and Elections Bill

There is a problem as regards whether that person will now be a candidate following Royal Assent. If that is not what the Government intend, they must say so. We need a global capping of expenditure, because that is the only sort of cap on expenditure that has a chance of working. I am puzzled by the position of the Conservatives. Democracy and the market are different things; in the market, it is £1, one vote; in a democracy, it is one person, one vote. The right hon. Member for Horsham talks as if the two things should be confused, but if we do that, we end up undermining the basic equality that lies at the heart of democracy. The Conservative amendment does not mention, as ours does, a global cap on expenditure. I would be interested to know whether the Conservatives have abandoned that aspect of the Hayden Phillips compromise. As the hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth (Jeremy Wright), who is sadly not in his place, said, the Committee and Hayden Phillips proposed a package deal, and that package includes the global expenditure limit that the Conservatives should not renege from—I hope that they have not done so.