Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I do not think that the noble Lord has been following my argument. We will have, as we are told by the noble Lord’s leader the Prime Minister, a parliamentary standards authority. It will be responsible for the investigative system that will be undertaken by the commissioner. Presumably that will be the present commissioner with a new remit. If that due process is completed properly, and is not in any way affected by party considerations, with a decision that a particular Member has so infringed the rules of the House that he or she should be suspended, it will be possible—on demand of, say, 5 or 10 per cent of voters signing a special petition—to call a by-election. That is what the Prime Minister and the Conservative leader have been talking about in the last few days. That is what I am talking about. With this amendment we seek to give effect to the intentions of all three party leaders. Today we should agree, in principle, that those steps should be taken to give effect to the promises that have been made on behalf of all three major parties. Much has been made in recent days about the special link between MPs and their constituents. As a former Member, I know that there can be a very strong sense of connection for constituents in that they talk about their local MP as "their" MP. Many MPs are, in that sense, servants of their constituents, who send them to this building. If they break the rules, surely the constituents, and not their parties, party leaders, kangaroo courts or the Chief Whip, should have the right to say, "You are not our MP any more. You have broken our trust and you must go". That is a sound principle for us to agree to. Today is Parliament’s earliest opportunity to make that statement. If we dodge this issue now, I fear that the public will think that we have deliberately forgotten it already, despite the promises of recent days from all three party leaders. Delay will be interpreted as a further broken promise. Let us show this place, at least, in a good light this afternoon by deciding to change rather than just to debate change. Our amendment will not be the final word as it expressly confers that responsibility on the authorities—the Electoral Commission in the first place and in due course on the newly created PSA—to report the details and to set out options for Parliament to agree. For once, instead of just talking about the merits of an idea, let us vote this afternoon to make it happen. I beg to move.