Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, this is an important issue not least because, as yet, Members of the other place have had no debate on it. Those who were present at Second Reading, as well as those who have taken part in the discussions in Grand Committee, will recall that this is the question of the exclusion from the ballot paper of the candidates’ addresses. By some special arrangement, this was put to the other place without any debate, out of sequence and not in the group to which it related. I need go no further. There is an important principle here, which is similar to the principle that the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, enunciated on Monday, in relation to the amendment that we had both put before the House. This is an issue that the House of Commons should debate, but it will not be in a position to do so unless we pass our amendment tonight; if we do not do so, the clause will stand in the Bill undebatable. The suggestion has been made that somehow this issue is not appropriate for your Lordships’ House because it wholly relates to Members of the other place. That is not so. It relates to all candidates who wish to stand for the other place. It is therefore perfectly appropriate for your Lordships’ House to take a view on this issue. That is the first illusion that I must seek to dispel. There are other misunderstandings, too. It has been suggested that somehow this is an important issue to deal with because there is some sort of new security risk. Frankly, as those who have had the experience of standing as candidates will know, you do not have to put your name on the ballot paper for your address to be well known in your area by other means. If there was a security risk, no doubt the Government would come forward with some direct evidence from the police or the security services to that effect. The Government very properly instituted a consultation process on this issue back in November, I think. We now have the response. Only two MPs—on behalf of other MPs, I should say—responded. The Electoral Commission supported the idea that there might be a change in the law. However, electoral administrators, returning officers, the Newspaper Society and, most important of all, the public have made it absolutely clear that they think that any reduction in transparency on this issue would be totally inappropriate and certainly out of favour at the present time. The only political party to make any sort of submission to the consultation process were the Liberal Democrats and we were clearly against withholding addresses in this way. Of course, there was a vote in the other place. The Lord Chancellor and the Minister responsible for the Bill both voted against this change, which they felt was clearly inappropriate, without proper discussion and debate. The Minister said on a previous occasion that he intends there to be a free vote, rather than a whipped vote, on this proposal. I hope that that is still the case; no doubt he will be able to confirm that. At the moment, increasing the secrecy that surrounds the political process will seem even more inappropriate than it was when we discussed these matters at Second Reading and in Grand Committee. Frankly, I believe that the public will think it pretty odd if that is introduced for the politicians who may stand for election to the other place—but not, incidentally, in relation to some of the devolved Administrations. You would think that, if there were real pressure for this to happen, it might be in Northern Ireland, where there is a reasonable case for doing this. However, so far as I am aware, there is no such pressure and there is certainly nothing in this clause to cover anyone else at any other level in the political system. I think that the public would regard this as another attempt by the political classes to protect themselves from scrutiny when that scrutiny was thought to be perfectly appropriate for everyone else. I hope that the Minister will now be rather more responsive to that concern than he was able to be prior to the consultation period. I beg to move.