NEW WRIT (BOROUGH OF ROCHDALE) (Hansard, 23 January 1958)

§ Mr. Ede (South Shields)
I apologise to the House for intervening at this stage on a day when there is to be a debate of the utmost importance, but I had assumed, in accordance with the custom of late, that this Motion would have been moved tomorrow morning. As it was moved this afternoon, I had to challenge it at once or lose all opportunity of drawing attention to the circumstances which surround it.
I can only think that it is by inadvertence that the right hon. Gentleman the Patronage Secretary has put down this Motion for this week. The fact is that this poll will be taken on the stalest possible register. The effect of passing this Motion this week will be that only people who were resident in the Borough of Rochdale on 10th October, 1956, will be able to vote—[HON. MEMBERS: "Shame."]—whereas if the Motion had been put down for Monday, or any other day of next week, those in residence on 10th October, 1957, would have been able to vote.
I cannot think that the right hon. Gentleman has much real interest in the outcome of this by-election. It is very difficult to find anyone who thinks that the right hon. Gentleman's candidate will be other than No. 3 in the poll. I remind him that he had a warning in what happened at Lewisham, North about this time last year, when he played the same trick on the electors there.
In view of the importance of the debate which is to follow, I will say no more, but I wish to protest most strongly against the continued way in which every effort is made to avoid an appeal to a live electorate which is capable of speaking with modern precision on the issues before it.

§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department and the Lord Privy Seal (Mr. R. A. Butler)
May I say, in reply to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Shields (Mr. Ede), that the Government have deliberately moved this Motion for the reason that by the time this by-election will have been held the seat will have been vacant for two months. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hornsey."] Hon. Members refer to Hornsey. In that case the Opposition made a great fuss and row because we did not move the Motion early and because they did not want the seat to be vacant for so long. We are deliberately taking the advice of the Opposition in moving this Motion in good time so that there shall not be a long period of vacancy.
The right hon. Gentleman referred to the new register, but he knows perfectly well that political parties and their agents have to work on the new register. If we waited for the new register the seat would be vacant for a time which I think constitutionally improper. We have considered all these matters and, under the circumstances, I think that we have chosen the right time to move the Motion.

§ Mr. Marcus Lipton (Brixton)
The reply of the Leader of the House to my right hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Mr. Ede) was so puerile that it cannot be allowed to pass without a protest. I remember that a year ago I pro- 1266 tested when the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury moved a Motion for the issuing of a Writ for Lewisham, North and did not condescend to explain to the House why he was asking the House to agree to the Motion. As a result, the Lewisham, North by-election was held one day before the new register came into operation and thousands of voters were disfranchised. As a result of accepting this Motion, thousands of voters in Rochdale will be disfranchised. People complain about the disrepute into which this House is falling. One of the explanations for it is conduct of the kind which we are now asked to accept.
I quite understand that the Government do not want the true voice of democracy to express itself. They know quite well that if a General Election took place they would be out. They know that there would be a vastly increased majority against the Government if a new register were adopted as the basis for the by-election in Rochdale. The action of the Government in this case will so stink in the nostrils of democratic people everywhere that we have no doubt about what the result in Rochdale will be.