Political Parties and Elections Bill

To suggest that the reason that we did not make progress on the Hayden Phillips proposals was simply that the two main parties did not agree is to parody what happened. The simple fact is that, among many other objections to implementing the Hayden Phillips proposals, is an overwhelming one that illustrates that there is no consensus with the public and that the Liberal Democrats refuse to acknowledge but is correct: the Hayden Phillips proposals are predicated on a high level of state funding. I do not believe that there is a consensus for tens of millions of pounds of additional public money to be used to support the political parties at the moment. That is the fundamental problem.