§ Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.
4.22 pm§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. George Howarth)Clause 5 was the subject of some interesting discussion last Thursday. Briefly, the clause will enable the Secretary of State to appoint the day of commencement of the Bill's provisions, by way of a statutory instrument. The right hon. Member for North-West Cambridgeshire (Sir B. Mawhinney) tabled several amendments that would delay the commencement of the Bill's provisions. He would like Parliament, through the affirmative resolution procedure, to decide whether the Act should be brought into force, even though Parliament would have already approved the measures. The Minister of State, Home Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Gateshead, East and Washington, West (Ms Quin) explained that there was no justification for the use of the affirmative resolution procedure in that case and no precedent for such a measure.
The right hon. Member for North-West Cambridgeshire would also like us to wait until the Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Jenkins commission on the voting system have reported, even though neither body is considering issues related to elections to the European Parliament.
It has also been proposed that parties must secure democratic approval at regional level of the party lists and the order in which the candidates' names appear. I know of no instance of a Government interfering in the internal affairs of political parties. The right hon. Member for North-West Cambridgeshire may wish for that, given his party's difficulties, but I do not think that he seriously wants it. The Conservative party is clutching at straws and seeking to delay commencement by any means possible. Clause 5 simply allows the date of commencement to be determined in the usual way.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Clause 5 ordered to stand part of the Bill.