Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I am grateful that we have had an opportunity to discuss this important issue this evening. Ever since the Ballot Act 1872, the electorate have had the right to know where their candidates live. I suggest to your Lordships’ House that we should take seriously any reduction in that transparency—hence my anxiety, which I am disappointed that the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, does not share, that the other place should debate the issue. That was the issue on which he and I agreed on Monday and we were successful with that amendment. That place should take a decision of this importance after careful discussion. If the Minister really believes that taking an amendment out of its grouping—no one expected it to come—and then putting it to a vote without any debate and without its even being moved is a proper way to discuss such an issue, I am disappointed. I have been a Member of Parliament. My address was in the local telephone book for all the years for which I represented my constituency. As I mentioned in Grand Committee, when I had a majority of nine, at three o’clock in the morning pig farmers would ring up to say, "We was the nine", and give me a great deal of stick on what my views should be on the pig industry, so I understand the point about families. The logic of the submission of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is that every representative in every devolved Assembly should be given the same protection. I have listened especially to the experience of those Members of your Lordships’ House who know about Northern Ireland. Why should Members of the House of Commons be protected in a way that Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly are not? If the Government want to make some real changes, I suggest that they remove the provision from the Bill and look at the whole issue again, so that there can be proper consideration, rather than have it forced through as it has been so far. We still have not heard from the Minister or anyone else any evidence from the police or the security forces that this is an essential requirement to protect candidates for the other place and their families. Yet, on a whim, some seem to want to remove the transparency that has been in place for some 137 years. This is an issue that should be debated, discussed and decided in the other place. Therefore, I beg leave to test the opinion of the House. Division on Amendment 76 Contents 57; Not-Contents 129. Amendment 76 disagreed.