Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I will give a brief answer, as Mr Gale will tell me off if I stray too far from the amendments and we will debate this issue again when we get to clause 7. Someone can be elected. One has to have 50% of the votes remaining in the count at that stage. Under our system, which is optional preferential, voters do not have to express a preference. If a significant number do not express a preference for candidates, someone could get elected without having 50% of the votes cast in the first place, but they do have to have 50% of those remaining in the count. That is a very simple, straightforward, factual answer, and I am sure that my hon. Friend will probe me on it further when we debate clause 7 and the mechanics of the system that we plan to introduce. Having had this debate, I urge hon. Members to support Government amendment 264 to enable the Electoral Commission to publish that factual information. Such information might not be on the merits of the system, but rather on educating voters about some of the common terms that would be used by the two sides. As I said, its research on the question, which I commend to Members, states that there are some basic concepts concerning Parliament and Members of the House with which some voters are unfamiliar. Some underpinning education would be very helpful, and would not in any way get the commission into a debate on the merits of the two systems. Actually, if the commission deals with that, the yes and no campaigns can deal with the merits of the two systems and their effects, and try to persuade the public to cast their vote for their side. I urge hon. Members to support the Government amendment, the hon. Member for Rhondda to withdraw his amendment, and hon. Members who spoke to amendment 247 not to press it to a Division. On that last proposal, which is in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex, it does not seem sensible to give the players on the pitch a veto over when the referee can produce neutral information. On the point made by the hon. Member for Foyle, given what I said on the difficulty of producing factual information without being drawn on the merits, I think it unlikely that the commission will get involved in rebutting information from particular campaigns. That would get it into exactly the problem that he highlighted, and it would be wary of doing so. I shall conclude my remarks there, hoping that the hon. Member for Rhondda withdraws his amendment.