Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, will the noble Lord just hear my argument on this, which I hope will deal with the point that he raises? Those articles are the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of assembly and association and the right to free elections. The articles might be engaged by limitations on the making of donations and any steps taken in this area would need careful legal consideration—I do not go further than that—in order to ensure that the proposal was compatible with the relevant convention rights. We do not say that it would breach them; we say that, if we do not consider imposing the restriction alongside the other restrictions—those on voting or being able to stand for Parliament—the risk of breach is, we believe, on advice, greater, because of the anomaly that it creates, for which there would be no obvious justification. This strengthens the argument for wider consideration of the whole matter, as we propose. I concede that the legal position is difficult and needs very careful consideration. If we are going to do something like this, we need to get it right. Without wider consideration, we genuinely risk not getting it correct.