Political Parties and Elections Bill

That immediately takes me to the next point that the Electoral Commission raised. It is not clear what the consequences would be if a candidate failed to make an accurate report, or if a returning officer failed to publish the report. In what format would that report be made available? Nor is it clear who would be able to provide candidates with advice on complying with the full range of reporting requirements that would be involved, given that the requirements of the House of Commons are quite wide-ranging but are not definitive, and they do change. There is a wider issue, which the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, made oblique reference to. Are we to understand that candidates should seek to divest themselves of any interests before election that might in any way impede, constrict or constrain their role as a representative post-election? That would be a completely novel procedure. To take an example—we all have personal examples—I never inherited a safe seat, so I was working flat out, trying to earn my living, right up to the date on which I was nominated, both in my original constituency and then, when the boundaries were redrawn, in my second constituency. From the point of view of the electorate, would the fact that I had a professional interest be held to stand against me compared with the full-time incumbent, who, presumably, having already signed up to the House of Commons rules, would be thought to be well above any such personal pecuniary interest? This is a dangerous tendency. It is attractive at first sight, but it would discourage people from entering parliamentary politics. Goodness knows, at the moment a lot of people are going to be discouraged from doing so by all that is going on, but it would discourage them further if it were thought that only full-time politicians who did not have a business, professional or trade interest already or have experience in that field, but who had a lot of private money or money from some other source, would escape the scrutiny of the electorate. There is already the problem—other noble Lords might agree—that too many people come to the House of Commons without direct experience of real life and without having a trade, profession or business that would give them good, substantial reasons for becoming a good representative of their local community. If this proposal were to be a further disincentive to those people, it would be a considerable step backwards. It is attractive that we should be more open and transparent. In the end, the electorate are extremely effective at identifying whether the people who stand before them for election will be good to represent that particular community, and I do not see that this provision is going to improve that.