CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

DEMOCRACY – REFERENDA - 19 January 2000

DEMOCRACY – REFERENDA - 19 January 2000

Dr Julian Lewis: If he [the Prime Minister] will make a statement on his policy in respect of the equalisation of the total sums of public money to be spent on each side of the argument in future referendum campaigns?

[SUPPLEMENTARY:] Given that the [Political Parties, Elections & Referendums] Bill allows equal sums of public money to be made available, why is the Prime Minister also putting into the Bill rules that mean that parties that favour the euro will be able to spend much more of the money that they raise than parties that are opposed to British entry into the euro? Could that be because at least 64 percent of the British people are opposed to the Prime Minister's policy of abolishing the pound, and he knows that he can only hope to get it through by rigging the rules in that way?