Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)

My Lords, there is so much in this Bill to debate and take issue with, so it is a little disappointing to have so little time at Second Reading for each of us. But rest assured that the Bill needs and will receive detailed scrutiny from us all at later stages. Although it is not a disclosable interest, I remind the House that—unlike my noble friend Lord Johnson of Lainston, who seems to have escaped—I am still a senior treasurer of the Conservative Party. It is a very disappointing Bill and, frankly, follows much of the direction of travel established in the Employment Rights Act, which itself interferes with the established system of politics in the UK. As my noble friend has said, the Act enabled trade unions to take money from their members in a way that would be considered completely unethical and breaches best consumer practices in terms of fundraising. Even more importantly, it allows unions not to publish the accounts of the political fund, so we do not know how their donations are made. It is disappointing that in respect of this Bill there was no consultation after the general election, despite Labour Ministers promising this. They did have the grace to admit this in the Commons on 3 March 2025. This Government have clearly risked breaking long-standing convention that the Government of the day do not unilaterally impose measures directly affecting political parties. By contrast, the previous Conservative Government, and the previous Labour Government before that, consulted the Parliamentary Parties Panel for major parties—I am sorry if the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, was not a member, but that is recognised on the Electoral Commission website. I will spend most of my time and my remarks focusing on donations. The noble Lord, Lord Wallace, forgot to mention Michael Brown; he did not make a donation because it was not permissible, but his company—5th Avenue Partners—did at £2.4 million, and the creditors are still waiting for a refund.