Political Parties and Elections Bill

I support the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, on this issue. There is certainly a big reputational problem with the other place at this moment, which it has to meet, but the amendment is not the answer to that problem. As the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, said, this will ultimately discriminate against people who have business interests when they are standing against an incumbent who can say that he is a professional politician and does nothing but devote his time to looking after his constituents. Also, this is only a description of somebody at a moment in time: that of the election. If that candidate then loses the election, presumably he hopes but cannot guarantee—because the sympathy of employers cannot necessarily be counted upon these days—to go back into the job that he was doing before the election. If, on the other hand, he wins the election and is part of the management of a large organisation, he may well cease to work for it anyway because he cannot devote the time to it upon becoming a Member of Parliament. This has no relevance whatsoever. It is of interest to know what profession or part of working life a candidate comes from but, beyond that, it does not add to the situation in any way. If, as the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, says, it will discourage people who know about something other than just politics from coming into the other place, that is regrettable. We are moving towards more professional politicians. One sees on the government Benches in the other place a lot of people who have never really had any experience of professional life in terms of earning money or doing anything constructive of that sort. It has not been a very good Government, and I hope that we can move to having people who really do know how to run things if there is a change at the election next year.