Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I speak in support of Amendment 64. As the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, pointed out, I was chairman of the committee that recommended to Parliament that tax relief should be allowed on donations up to the sum of £500. In reply to something that I said on Monday, the noble Lord, Lord Bach, said that in nearly every case the Government of the day accepted the committee’s recommendations. On Monday, there was one example when they did not do so; here is a second example where they did not accept the recommendation in the 2000 Act. Further thought should be given to it today. One proposal that is occasionally raised but is now impossible is that funding should come directly from the state to the political parties. As a saleable proposition to the general public, that is now impossible, although it was always very unattractive. The proposal in Amendment 64 is a way to encourage people to perform what is a useful function of supporting political parties with their money. It does not go very far and will not cost very much and is something which, in the present climate, ought to be welcomed. I say one final word. If the amendments are pressed to a Division, I hope that we will be able to find a way to divorce that proposal from the cap. That would be desirable. I see the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, nodding his head. Perhaps we could, when we get to that point, have a Division on the question of whether tax relief should be allowed on either the £500 figure or the £15 limit proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, and not have it confused with what is in principle a wholly different issue: the capping at £50,000.