Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, takes us back in history to the 2000 Act, whose passage I do not clearly remember. If, as he assures me is the case—I have not had a chance to check—my late friend Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish moved an amendment similar to this one, it must have been a jolly good amendment. I am glad that he pressed it to a Division. I must confess that I was Chief Whip at the time and I cannot remember what instructions were issued to my late friend—not that he would necessarily always take them—on that occasion. Again, the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, assures us that the vote was at 7.15 pm and, from his examination of the Division List, it does not look as though I tried too hard to assist my late friend in securing the successful passage of that amendment. Obviously, in the event, we were unsuccessful. More seriously, I take the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen, about how easy it is to make an error that will leave one off the electoral roll. I am, like many noble Lords, entitled to put myself on the electoral roll in two places: at home in Cumberland and where I live in London when I attend your Lordships’ business. This year, purely for administrative reasons, because I happened to be away at the crucial period, I failed to put myself on the electoral roll in London. I believe that I have now been put on it. Certainly, I have written to Westminster City Council and am assured that this is being corrected. It is just an example of how easy it is to make a small error of the sort that could leave one off the electoral roll. The noble Lord, Lord Anderson, says that in the case cited by the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, the individual had let his house. Therefore, he ought to have been living somewhere else or out of the country. He should have known. However, it is easy to move from one home to another and forget that you have not registered in the second place, having let the first home. One should not dismiss the idea out of hand in the way that the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, did. I certainly give a degree of qualified support to the first part of the noble Lord’s amendment, particularly since, as he said, he copied it from one moved by my late friend Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish.