Threat to fair democracy as Labour ‘rigs’ election rules to cling to power : Graham Evans, Conservative MP for Weaver Vale
Graham Evans, Conservative MP for Weaver Vale

Threat to fair democracy as Labour ‘rigs’ election rules to cling to power

Labour Ministers rushing in new controversial election laws to save marginal Labour seats

Gordon Brown was accused today of fiddling election laws in order to hang onto power. The Political Parties and Elections Bill will be debated for the first time in the Commons on Monday. The key part of the Bill contains controversial new rules on elections, designed to help Labour MPs keep their seats and hinder their opponents.

Currently, Parliamentary candidates in a general election (both MPs and their rivals) have a set limit that they can spend during the campaign, once the general election is called. This averages £11,000, creating a level playing field between all sides.

Labour Ministers are seeking to change the law such that the £11,000 election expense limit for Parliamentary Candidates commences as soon as any a candidate starts campaigning (‘the trigger’) - even if it is months or years before the potential election. MPs, by contrast, will not be regulated in such a way.

·           Discredited rules resurrected to help Labour: Such ‘trigger’ rules operated before 2000, but had become discredited and were scrapped by the Labour Government following an election court case involving Labour MP, Fiona Jones. Fiona Jones was let off in the Court of Appeal in 1999 since the rules were so vague. Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, warned that “misunderstanding is rife” under the rules. They were also slammed by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

·           Retrospective law rushed in before general election: The resurrected trigger rules are being rushed in to come into effect on Royal Assent of the Bill in the spring. Yet this will be before new statutory guidance has been issued by the Electoral Commission, causing confusion and opening up a legal quagmire for Parliamentary candidates. Candidates face disqualification or even jail for breaking the (unclear) laws. This will effectively be retrospective, as all existing Parliamentary Candidates will be hit by the new rules, effectively banning them from campaigning – such as having to pull down their existing local websites.

·           Bad law with no clear rules: The commencement of the new rules before any guidance been pushed in breach of the Government’s own code of practice, which states that guidance must be published 3 months before new rules are implemented. Guidance will be essential for political parties, as the rules will be incredibly vague and untested – and as the Fiona Jones’ case showed. The corrosive controversy over loans to political parties was a consequence of lack of any guidance on the issue.

·           New rules won’t touch taxpayer propaganda and the unions: Labour has introduced a new taxpayer-funded Communications Allowance which bankrolls propaganda by MPs to their constituents. Up to £40,000 a year can be spent on constituency “communication”. Yet the new trigger rules will not apply to such Communications Allowance spending, even though it promotes the individual MP in the same manner as Parliamentary Candidates do when they campaign. Political campaigning by trade union barons is also unaffected, illustrating the partisan and arbitrary nature of Labour’s changes.

·           Designed to protect Labour’s marginal seats: The changes were not part of Sir Hayden Phillips’ recommendations on party funding reform. Only general elections are affected – and not any other type of election. The Government’s own impact assessment admits that “this proposal is most likely to affect candidates in marginal seats”.

Rt Hon Francis Maude MP, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said:

“The Labour Party is so desperate to cling onto power they are attempting to gerrymander the election, by rigging election rules in their favour.

“These discredited new rules are manifestly unfair – Labour MPs will be able to spend tens of thousands of taxpayers’ money on official propaganda and the trade unions will pump in money to Labour seats, whilst everyone else will be effectively gagged. This is a bad law – being rushed in without guidance, in breach of the Government’s own code of practice.

“For a governing party to attempt to fiddle the election has the hallmarks of a banana republic rather than the mother of Parliaments.”

OCTOBER 2008