Contribution
My Lords, it is always a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes. I join him in congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Macintosh, on his maiden speech. I thank him for the research he put into it and, indeed, the way in which it was delivered.
I too want to welcome this important legislation, with some caveats. I do not support lowering the age of voting to 16 for various reasons, not least that I am not so old that I do not remember what I was like when I was 16. But I have to accept that it will become a reality because it is a commitment in the last Labour manifesto. However, I associate myself with the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, and the noble Lord, Lord Brady, on the inconsistency around the age of a child. When is a child not a child? When it comes to voting, apparently.
In the short time available to me, I want to focus on those elements I agree with and those that I feel need to be augmented. I welcome the elements of this Bill that deal with the Northern Ireland canvass. The current regime requires a register to be recreated from scratch every 10 years and specifies that electors must re-register as part of that canvass to remain on the register. Those who do not respond to the canvass—sometimes for entirely understandable reasons— are removed from the register, despite the fact that the chief electoral officer holds data to show that they remain eligible. Therefore, significant numbers can be lost on the register for no good reason. The changes in this Bill allow the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland to retain those electors if they are satisfied that they are still resident. That protects the integrity of the register and brings Northern Ireland into closer alignment with Great Britain.
There are also changes on late registration, which I know, as a former elected MLA, is a very frustrating process because it is often a case of “computer says no” and people are left without a vote for no obvious reason. I welcome those changes as well. I understand the reasons behind the strictness—some political parties were very adept at registering 16 people at one address for voting—but the measures that were introduced also hit genuine voters who, for myriad reasons, were registering late, having moved house, for example.
The Bill also amends requirements that were very onerous. For example, the chief electoral officer will ask for additional supporting documentation only if routine data checks do not provide a clear identity match and a clear address. I welcome the change to electoral ID cards in Northern Ireland, but I am concerned about the widening of IDs accepted at polling stations in Great Britain. I am worried that the use of bank cards for ID purposes will lead to abuse. No doubt we will discuss this in Committee. I know it does not apply to Northern Ireland—and I am very relieved it does not.
I very much welcome the development regarding calling out electors’ names at polling stations. I agree with the Government that this is an unnecessary practice, and I am glad we are moving into line with the rest of the UK. It will also be a great relief to those in Northern Ireland with embarrassing second names that used to reverberate around the polling station.
I also join the Government in condemning the harassment and intimidation of candidates, and in removing the requirement for candidates to publish their home address. I welcome any move which supports wider participation in our political process. I well remember that when I approached various talented and intelligent women in Northern Ireland to run for office, they would say to me, “But I couldn’t put up with the amount of abuse you have to endure”. It is incumbent on those of us who have been involved in political elections to enable those who come after us to do the same.
Finally, I want to say a few words about foreign interference in our democratic system, after the weekend we have had. We had attempted interference by the leader of the United States, trying to override the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland and our self-determination, which is protected by domestic and international law.
There are many ways in which malign influences can come to bear—we saw an effort at the weekend, which, to be fair, had limited impact—including in the form of channelling money through different mechanisms. For years, Sinn Féin has used the United States as a place they can go to raise money to distort politics in my part of the United Kingdom. That should be of concern to everybody in this Chamber. The money comes through Friends of Sinn Féin, and it is used to advocate for the destruction of the United Kingdom. I hope to put down an amendment to deal with that issue in Committee.