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Mr. Terry Lewis (Worsley): Perhaps we are older.
Mr. Snape: I shall settle for that description. My hon. Friends might well remember Alice Cooper--the nearest I can get is the song "A Boy Named Sue"--but that name did not arise from the nomination procedures before1 May.
My hon. Friend the Minister will be aware that, where information is available, action can be taken by any of the political parties to try to prevent an abuse of the
democratic process. I am most concerned that in West Bromwich, West, we were denied even that elementary right and, although I have since written to the chief executive, I do not know why information regarding the nature of nomination papers before nominations closed--information that was readily available elsewhere--was denied us there.
I assure you, Madam Speaker, that had that information, which should have been available, been given to us, the Labour party in the west midlands would have taken prompt legal action. I can say that because I chaired the regional campaign committee during the election; when such cases arose, there was regular contact between regional officers and Labour party headquarters to see what action could be taken. As far as I am concerned, action would have been taken in your constituency, Madam Speaker, regardless of the fact that you and I have been political colleagues for many years and regardless of any Speaker's former political affiliation. The question whether any Speaker should be opposed is one for the political parties and I hope that hon. Members on both sides will agree that, if any Speaker is opposed, it should be based on fairness, not on attempted misleading fraud.
My hon. Friend the Minister will also be aware that there is even less protection against such misrepresentation in local elections than in a parliamentary contest. A number of unitary and county council elections were also held on 1 May this year, but is my hon. Friend aware that, in the new unitary authority of Bracknell, no fewer than four candidates who described themselves as "New Labour", but who had no connection whatever with the Labour party, appeared on the ballot paper?
Those candidates so split the Labour vote that the Bracknell Conservative party achieved overall political control, thus rendering any legal challenge--had one been possible--impossible. Legally, there is nothing that can be done, although the unfairness of such an abuse of the electoral procedure is all too obvious. I should tell Conservative Members that, although their party might have benefited in Bracknell, in other parts of the country and especially in the parliamentary elections they, too, were penalised by such action.
Mr. Denis MacShane (Rotherham):
Is my hon. Friend aware that it is not only a question of past malpractice? When Scottish and Welsh Assemblies are established and if, as I hope, we move to a regional list system for the European Parliament, the question of the correct description of political parties will become even more important and pressing.
Mr. Snape:
Although I cannot join my hon. Friend in willingly going along with a list system--[Hon. Members: "Hear, hear."] I am not alone on Government Benches in being a founder member of the first-past-the-post system. Although it is not, strictly speaking, a matter for this debate, I have to tell my hon. Friend that I remain so committed. However, whatever the electoral system in future, my hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the likelihood of abuse. Given the fact that Scottish and Welsh devolution will bring more elections to both countries, the issue has to be sorted out sooner rather than later.
I do not underestimate the difficulty inherent in attempting to change the law, but I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will agree that something has to
be done--and done quickly--to prevent candidates from deliberately misdescribing themselves and using political party titles to which they have no right. None of us would object to the descriptions "Independent Labour", "Independent Conservative" or "Independent Liberal". Such descriptions make it quite clear that the candidate, while having some sympathy with a specific political party, is standing as a candidate in his or her own right; but I hope that action will be taken against those who deliberately attempt to mislead.
In the earlier debate, the Minister who replied mentioned the use of party logos on ballot papers. Such procedures do not seem to cause great problems elsewhere in the world; a change in the law to protect party logos and a strengthening of the Representation of the People Act 1983--perhaps to provide for a specific offence of using a description deliberately intended to mislead--might help to stop future problems.
Mr. Robert Maclennan (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross):
I am extremely grateful to the hon. Member for West Bromwich, East (Mr. Snape) for initiating the debate, and I am privileged to have an opportunity to make a brief contribution.
The hon. Gentleman raised the issue in a notably non-partisan way, and that is entirely as it should be. All parties and, more important, the electors stand to lose when episodes of the sort he described occur, whether wholesale or on a limited scale in individual constituencies.
One of the most notorious examples affecting my party and those who sought to support it during the most recent elections to the European Parliament was the case of my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Mr. Sanders). He lost his seat because of a deliberate attempt by another candidate to deceive the electors by using the title "Literal Democrat". Efforts to gain redress through the existing procedures of the Representation of the People Act were wholly unsuccessful.
Following that incident, and throughout the previous Parliament, all-party discussions with the then Home Secretary, the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard), endeavoured to produce a proposal. The Lord Chancellor of the day, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, was also involved in those discussions. However, we got nowhere, and I am not sure that that was because no perfectly satisfactory proposals were put forward. I had a strong sense that the discussions were not progressed with determination, deliberation or any recognition of the seriousness of the issue.
The debate gives rise to wider questions, and wider solutions might be canvassed on the conduct of elections. My right hon. and hon. Friends would favour the establishment of an independent electoral commission.
The regulation of elections is not a suitable matter to be handled by a Secretary of State and a Department. It is more appropriate that such matters should be handled by an independent body that is responsible to Parliament, as recommended by the Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government as long ago as 1991, in its report on the conduct of elections.
The commission would bring together the expertise of Home Office officials, the personnel of the boundary commission and those responsible for local authority electoral administration. Such a commission could be responsible for electoral administration, boundary revisions, monitoring of election expenses and the allocation of broadcasting time for all elections and referendums. To my mind, none of those matters is adequately dealt with at present. This is a short debate and I would not wish to expatiate on those topics, but I wish them all to be properly monitored and openly discussed, and ultimately decided on by Parliament as a whole.
I wish to ask the Minister a question about an issue wider than that touched on by the hon. Member for West Bromwich, East. Before the election, the Labour party, in its manifesto, expressed its intention to refer the issue of electoral funding, and especially the moneys that are made available to parties from sources other than the state, to the Nolan commission. I understood that to be Labour party policy before the election, but since then we have heard nothing about it.
I understand that the Nolan commission is appointed to sit until next spring; if it is to do that job, it should be charged with doing so quite soon. I hope that the Minister can tell us whether Nolan will be charged with that important question, for it is highly unsatisfactory that, at present, attempts are made effectively to buy parliamentary support.
There is a huge discrepancy between the amounts that political parties spend. Apparently, such expenditure does not always succeed in its objects. I suspect that, in the recent general election campaign, the amount spent by the Conservative party, which is widely rumoured to have been about £40 million--perhaps the right hon. Member for North-West Cambridgeshire (Dr. Mawhinney) can enlighten us--did not give value for money. However, I would not wish to enter into the merits of the ways in which the matter should be handled. That matter, including the extent of state funding for parliamentary elections, would be a proper issue for investigation by the Nolan commission, and all political parties might wish to give evidence on it.
The Liberal Democrats would support an element of state funding and some control limiting national expenditure on elections. As things stand, the rules are obviously being breached, not only nationally, but locally. Widespread telephone canvassing of constituencies is conducted from central locations to ensure the return of local candidates. Much that is done is difficult to track, but outside existing law. There is an urgent need to tackle that problem if the issue of expenditure on conduct of elections is not further to bring the process into disrepute.
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