Political Parties and Elections Bill

It is with a due degree of anticipation that I listened to that contribution, and I am not disappointed or surprised by the hon. Lady's comments. Of course this is the United Kingdom Parliament, but all I am saying—and I hope that she will accept this—is that the Electoral Commission has obligations and responsibilities beyond this House. It is unfortunate that the House of Lords refused to recognise that, just as this House has done. Once again, they are viewing these matters exclusively through a Westminster and House of Commons prism, and after all these debates, we have moved no further forward. I do not know how the role of the fourth commissioner, who is to be allocated to the minority parties, is to be determined. I still believe that they will have to be allocated to the Democratic Unionist party, as the largest minority party. That would be right and proper. Certainly, if the Scottish National party were the largest minority party and we did not secure that commissioner, I would be very disappointed. The commissioner will have to go to the largest party; there is no other basis on which that matter can be determined. That is not good enough, however. We have failed to come to terms with the new reality of the UK. It is disappointing to see from these amendments that the House of Lords has not recognised the reality of a multi-legislature, multi-party UK. I hope that the Minister will spend a couple of minutes considering these questions, and that he will try somehow to reassure me that the new Electoral Commission, through the electoral commissioners, will be able to deal adequately with these issues and to look out for the whole of the UK and not just this House.