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1119 Political Parties and Elections Bill [LORDS] Political Parties and Elections Bill 1120 [LORD TYLER] shall forbear to use, because his reading matter ranges from the Sunday Times to Private Eye. Members of your Lordships’ House do not need to be told what either of those august journals think of the way in which the BNP, in particular, has used the electoral system to promote its policies. However, there is a very serious point here, and it was addressed in the Gould report on the Scottish elections of 2007. It was quite clear in that election that there was real confusion in Scotland as a result of the way in which the ballot paper had, in my view and the view of my noble friend, been misused. It may be that the Minister this evening may not be able to accept the amendment in its present form, despite the assistance of the authorities of the House. But I hope the Minister will accept that there is a real problem here, and something needs to be done. I beg to move. Lord Greaves: My Lords, I am very pleased that the Liberal Democrat Front Bench has now come around to the view that I have been promoting for some time, that slogans should be omitted from ballot papers. In the past, all the parties have been guilty of using the description in this way. In my view, it is quite wrong and I hope that ways will be found to stop it. I have in front of me a copy of the ballot paper for the elections to the European Parliament in the north-west region, which has one or two interesting examples on it of exactly what we are complaining about—putting political slogans and other irrelevant information on ballot papers. The British National Party, as my noble friend has already said, says in its subsidiary description, “British National Party: Protecting British Jobs”. That is clearly a slogan. The Christian Party says it is “proclaiming Christ’s Lordship”. That may or may not be a slogan, but it seems to me that if the Christian Party wishes to stand, then what it is about should be part of its campaigning and not on the ballot paper. The Conservative Party and the Labour Party are crystal pure on this issue, and have nothing further, and the Liberal Democrats, for reasons I do not quite understand, say, “Liberal Democrats: liberal democrat”. I do not think “Liberal Democrat” is a slogan, but why “Liberal Democrats” appears followed by “Liberal Democrat”, I do not understand. Nevertheless, I think we are above reproach there. Then we have the English Democrats Party, which says, “English Democrats: Putting England First”. That is clearly a slogan. We have something called the Jury Team, which I do not understand at all, that says, “Democracy, Accountability, Transparency”. That might be an ideological statement, but it is not something that should be on the ballot paper. The Socialist Labour Party says, “Leader—Arthur Scargill”. People will have their views as to whether he should be on the ballot paper; it did not do them much good. The Green Party says, “Green Party: Say No To Racism”. That is clearly a slogan, and while one does not doubt that the Green Party is anti-racist, it ought not to be on the ballot paper. So it seems to me that this is prevalent: people are using it to promote a political message. It is still going on and it ought to be stopped. Lord Campbell-Savours: My Lords, I want to speak on this amendment, because I think it is an important issue. The reality is that we were in Committee prior to the last round of elections. It seems to me that this is an escalating level of abuse: if we allow it to develop in one particular area, then someone else will say, “Well, if they can do it, we can do it”, and more and more candidates are going to adopt this approach in the future. We learn from this last election, which, as I said, took place after we were in Committee. I would have thought that the noble Lord, Lord Steel, as a former Presiding Officer in the Scottish Parliament, would have had particular experience of this, as I presume that candidates in Scotland have made representations to him that have led to him tabling this amendment. Irrespective of what is in the Minister’s brief, which may well have been written prior to these most recent elections and the experience of candidates in various parts of the country of being confronted with a ballot paper riddled with slogans—many areas had a very long ballot paper of some 15 to 18 inches long: the longest one I have ever seen in my life—I would have thought that my noble friend might want to indicate a little flexibility during the course of his response. At the least he might indicate that the Government are now considering these issues so that in the future we may consider further legislation in this area. Lord Henley: My Lords, briefly, I have some sympathy for what is behind this amendment. Like the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, I do not like the growth in the use of slogans on the ballot paper. As he said, since Committee we have seen them used a great deal in the European elections. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, took us through the ballot paper for the north-west—the one on which I would have put my cross—and speculated whether the expression “liberal democrat” could be seen as a slogan. As someone who came from the old Liberal Party and often feels that there is not much liberalism left among the Liberal Democrats, perhaps he is right that it is a slogan—but then, looking at some of the other slogans, I imagine the poor berated Prime Minister might have rather resented the fact that the BNP took to paraphrasing his line “British jobs for British people” by adding its slogan “Protecting British jobs”. It might have been preferable if we did not have such slogans on the ballot paper, and I will be interested to hear what the Government have to say in response to the noble Lord, Lord Tyler. Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, the amendment seeks to prevent the use by political parties of descriptions on nomination and ballot papers at parliamentary elections, and provides that independent candidates may use descriptions of up to six words. The description would have to be authorised by the Electoral Commission. The regulation of party descriptions has evolved considerably over the past decade. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 provided for the compulsory registration of political parties. The Electoral Commission’s 2003 report, Standing for Election in the
1121 Political Parties and Elections Bill [17 JUNE 2009] Political Parties and Elections Bill 1122 United Kingdom, included the recommendation that parties should be given the option to register descriptions, and that candidates be limited to using their registered party name or a registered description on the ballot paper. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 introduced this measure for UK elections. However, independent candidates may use only the description “independent”. I recognise the concerns that have been expressed by politicians on all sides and by a number of electors who have questioned whether the descriptions used on the ballot paper at the recent European elections were appropriate, even if they were within the law. In addition, there has been a debate for some time about whether the existing arrangements are fair to independent candidates. However, I am concerned that the proposal set out in this amendment goes too far in the other direction. Within the current framework, smaller or local parties have the opportunity to register a party name that capitalises on contentious local issues, and larger and national parties have argued that this puts them at a disadvantage. Party descriptions address this disadvantage by allowing national parties the opportunity to reflect local circumstances on a ballot paper. For example, parties commonly use one description when contesting UK parliamentary elections and another for elections to the devolved Administrations. The noble Lord’s amendment would provide that independents would be the only candidates able to use a description of any kind. I question whether this arrangement goes too far in allowing independent candidates to make an appeal that would be denied to political parties. In addition, while I recognise the noble Lord’s intentions, I should make it clear that the amendment is defective since it envisages that candidates are registered with a political party. This registration is the route by which the amendment defines candidates who are compelled to use only the registered party name as a description. While political parties must register with the Electoral Commission, there is no requirement that candidates must register with political parties before they may stand on that party’s behalf at an election; nor is there any requirement for any candidate to be a member of the party on whose behalf they are a candidate. Another difficulty with the proposed measure is the burden that it would place on the Electoral Commission. In considering this issue in 2003, the commission concluded that it would be impractical for it to, “attempt to regulate all independent candidates’ descriptions in the tight timescales allowed by election timetables”. For this reason, I understand that the Electoral Commission does not support the noble Lord’s amendment and is of the view that the existing position is satisfactory. These matters are of course kept under review, and since this issue concerns the way in which those standing for election communicate with the electorate, it must be right that any change should be made in discussion with all those who have a stake in the electoral process. Therefore, I urge the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment. 7.15 pm Lord Tyler: My Lords, I am grateful to all those who have contributed to the debate, although I must say that I found the tone of the Minister’s response much less forthcoming that I had hoped it would be as a result of the very effective way in which the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, in his normal emollient way, had invited the Minister to be equally emollient. There is a serious issue here. I understand what the Minister says about the Electoral Commission’s work, and it was clear from the Gould commission that what it recommended was not intended to be the last word on this subject; as I anticipated, there would be further discussion about the ballot paper design. I hope that I can read from what the Minister has just said that the continuing review to which he referred is ongoing: that it has not stopped and will not cease simply because there is a problem at the moment. I also understand that the Electoral Commission will review what happened in this respect in the recent European parliamentary elections. I hope that I have got that right. The Minister may like to intervene if I have got it wrong, but I hope the fact that he is not intervening suggests that that is exactly what will happen. In those terms, having aired an important issue and the Government having responded, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 76A withdrawn. Clause 23 : Filling vacant European Parliament seats in Northern Ireland Amendment 77 Moved by Lord Tunnicliffe 77: Clause 23, page 25, line 16, at end insert— “(aa) where the previous MEP stood in the names of two or more registered parties when elected (or most recently elected), by a person jointly nominated by the nominating officers of those parties;” Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, Clause 23 provides for regulations to be made that would permit a vacancy in a Northern Ireland European parliamentary seat to be filled by a person nominated by the nominating officer of the political party on whose behalf the vacating MEP stood when elected. Currently, the law provides for by-elections to be held only in the event that a European parliamentary seat is vacated in Northern Ireland. Noble Lords will be aware that by-elections to fill vacancies are generally undesirable in elections where the single transferable vote form of proportional representation is used because this has the potential to distort the careful balance of seats that will have been secured by the election. Last year, the Government consulted publicly in Northern Ireland on possible changes to the current system, and there was substantial support for introducing the method set out in Clause 23 of replacing MEPs from political parties from both sides of the community. Amendments 77 and 78 amend Clause 23 so that regulations may provide for an MEP who stood in the name of two or more political parties when elected to be replaced by a person nominated jointly by the nominating officers of those parties. The law generally
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