Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I did not intend to speak, but I must say that I wholly support the amendment in the name of my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours. I have two brief points to make. In June 1997 in a committee in the other place, my late colleague Audrey Wise and I tabled amendments to the Finance Bill. As well as being told that the amendments were inconvenient, we were told that they were in the wrong place in the Bill and were technically deficient—all those reasons. Our view was: "Make them okay. Put them in the right place in the Bill". That is what the Government did, but they would not have done so if we had not tabled the amendments. I must say to your Lordships, although I would not dare to give examples, that on several occasions at the Dispatch Box in recent years I have moved government amendments or agreed to amendments to government Bills from noble Lords around the House that were not perfectly drafted. Our view was that we needed them so that the draftsmen in the other place could get to work to achieve our objective. That is done every day of the week. That is what parliamentary counsel is for. The general view among the population now is that we have banned donations from foreigners. Morally, you cannot argue that case if you allow the status quo on the taxation argument; the noble Lord, Lord Neill, made that point. If the amendment had not been on the amendment paper in the House of Commons, it would be quite wrong for us to try to put it in from here. The fact that it was on the amendment paper but not debated means that it was still part of the Bill’s proceedings. Generally speaking, if anyone outside this place asks us what we do, one of the key answers that we give is that we ask the House of Commons to think again. It will not think again unless the issue is on the amendment paper, and we can get it on to the amendment paper only if my noble friend’s amendment is accepted. I shall vote for it.