Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]

Indeed. I completely agree with my hon. Friend. Genuine concerns arise about the type of activities that would count. There is a potential burden on the voluntary sector, and particularly on small charities. There could be huge demands for form-filling, and we understand that referees for applicants may even be fined. The Minister is proposing a national checking service, which would be a huge extra burden on local authorities, but it is not at all clear what will happen to the money from the migration impacts fund to offset some of those costs on local authorities. Altogether, the House is being asked to buy a pig in a poke with the current proposals. The proposal that we are making in our amendment 22, almost as an illustration, is to prevent the prescribed activities that would count as activity—that is, those activities that would allow a two-year reduction in the time before someone was eligible to become a British citizenship—from including""activities that could be considered in the interests of a single political party."" At a time when the repute of politics is not particularly high, I shudder at the prospect, which is possible under the current legislation, of somebody turning up at a Member of Parliament's surgery and being told, "If you want to become a British citizen more quickly, I know what you can do—go out and deliver these leaflets for me." That would be absolutely appalling. It would be borderline corrupt if that were allowed by the legislation, and it would do democratic politics in this country no good either. That is an extremely important illustration of one of the things about the Bill that the Government have still got wrong, and we intend to test the mood of the House on that. My final point is about new clause 3. I always hesitate to talk about the Gurkhas in front of the Minister, who has had some bruising experiences in connection with the Gurkhas over the past few months. However, it is important that on every occasion the House should check on the progress of the Government's promises, which were extracted from them by their defeat in this House on the Gurkhas. This debate gives another opportunity to do that, and new clause 3 is an admirable way of providing it.