Member

My heart would like to support the fatal Motion and, had it been more prompt, there would have been strong reasons and precedent from 2000 to do so, as the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, said, but I am conscious of the conventions of the House and, importantly and practically, that elections must be called tomorrow. It is too late to cancel them now, not just for the parties to get their candidates in place but for the officials who need to book the village halls and staff the count. So I will support the regret Motion, but my biggest regret is that it was, for the most part, my Conservative councillor colleagues who turned into the biggest losers, by conniving with Labour on their own destruction while allowing the Labour Party to pick and choose the elections it does not want to fight.