Representation of the People Bill

Debate between Jim Allister and Anneliese Dodds

Report stage & 3rd reading
Wednesday 2nd September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jim Allister]

I think the hon. Gentleman should reflect on what he has effectively just said: that it is right for this House to disenfranchise my constituents, to take from them to right to vote for those who make the laws in 300 areas. Those 300 areas are what shape our economy in Northern Ireland: how we manufacture our goods, how we package them, how we sell them. All that has been removed from the reach of any single constituent in Northern Ireland to elect anyone to have any say over that.

That is disenfranchising and that is the fundamental objection, from a democratic point of view, to the Windsor framework. I therefore say to this House that yes, we can argue about whether 16-year-olds should have a vote. What I say is that if 16-year-olds are due to have a vote in Great Britain, 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland should have an equal reach on their franchise. It should enable them to elect those who make the laws, and not be subcontracted out to those we do not elect. That is why those two new clauses are there.

That is a probing, fundamental issue that touches upon our commitment to equal citizenship and to the fundamentals of our democracy, which is everyone’s right to participate on an equal footing in our democracy, electing those who make our laws. It is incontestable—it is wrong—to say to my constituents and every other constituent in Northern Ireland, “It is good for us in Great Britain to have those rights, but it is not good for you.” That is fundamentally wrong.

I make a final point on a different subject. I tried to intervene on the Minister but she would not take the intervention. On the £100,000 cap, will she confirm, in winding up, that Sinn Féin, for example, which is a party registered in Northern Ireland, will be exempt from the effect of that cap if an Irish citizen living abroad makes a donation in excess of it? Is that the position? If it is, and it is my reading of the Bill that it is, why has that loophole not been closed? Why should I or anyone else have to compete with a party that is not subject to the same constraints as the rest of us? Perhaps the Minister will address that, because it seems to be a loophole crying out to be closed.

[Anneliese Dodds (Oxford East) (Lab/Co-op)]

As so many have said in this debate, our democracy must not be for sale, so it is disturbing that the campaign spending arms race is becoming out of control. As has been mentioned, in 2023 the previous cap on campaign spending of £19 million was increased massively to £34 million. None of our constituents was asked whether they wanted that, and the Electoral Commission said at the time that it had not seen evidence to justify the increase.

We all know what can happen when campaign spending spirals out of control. A number of Members have referred to the situation in the US, where opaque crypto interests spent $189 million just between January and the end of June this year. That is with four months to go before the mid-term elections. We have also seen huge donations from crypto interests in our own country, but they were given in pounds.

New clause 70 would set a limit on campaign spending of £24.4 million. That is what the previous limit of £19 million would be now, allowing for inflation, minus 15%, per the recommendation of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. I understand that the Government are keen to avoid additional legislation at this stage, given the time pressure for ensuring that votes at 16 are delivered. I also acknowledge the letter from the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the First Secretary of State, which was published last night, urging the Electoral Commission to examine the matter. That letter makes it explicit that

“spending limits on parties and candidates are too high, and ought to be reduced”.

It asks the commission to provide recommendations to the Government by July 2027 at the latest.

I am pleased that the Government have heard the call from Members right across the House from the many different parties represented here who have supported my new clause. I am really grateful to the Members who supported it. As the Government have made that request to the Electoral Commission clear, I will not push for a vote on my new clause, but I really want to see progress. The Electoral Commission now has to work speedily on a lowered limit for campaign spend, to stop this arms race. That message has come clearly from this House, and the commission needs to act on it now.

In my remaining remarks, I want to urge the Government to move at pace on the further risks to UK democracy to which so many speakers have referred, many of which are covered by the amendments tabled by my hon. Friends the Members for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) and for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington). As others have said, we must ensure greater transparency on targeted online political advertising, including that facilitated through artificial intelligence, and on additional measures on third-party campaigning and political funding.

The stakes really could not be higher, as so many have said. The UK Extremism and Democratic Resilience Centre has recently shown that online platforms and AI-generated content are playing a powerful role in amplifying not just divisive narratives, but extremist narratives and conspiracy theories. This has led to a disturbing increase in the size of the still small, but now much more consequential, minority that accepts political violence. Over one in 10 people in our country now say that they could accept political violence. There has also been an increase in those who reject at least some democratic norms, with almost a third of people saying that we should ignore democratic institutions and rules if they get in the way of change. In the centre’s words,

“hostile states and domestic extremists are deliberately accelerating these fractures to further destabilise Britain”.

The Bill and the Government’s amendments will help, but they do not yet meet the full scale of this challenge. The Government have to engage in the kind of protection and promotion of democracy that they successfully urge many other nations to do when under the threat of foreign interference. Extremist narratives have to be contested and online platforms regulated and reformed, so while welcoming the Bill overall, I will continue to push for change so that we can really ensure that we have what is the right of every citizen in our country: free and fair elections.

Gaza: Humanitarian Situation

Debate between Jim Allister and Anneliese Dodds

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

We are absolutely determined to do all that we can to ensure that the UK-linked hostages who remain—Eli Sharabi, Oded Lifshitz and Avinatan Or—are brought home to their loved ones. We call for their immediate release and will do all in our power to secure that.

[Jim Allister (North Antrim) (TUV)]

No one can gainsay the need for humanitarian aid, but looking forward to the reconstruction phase, what enforceable assurances are there that aid provided by this Government will not be diverted to rebuilding terrorist tunnels, as happened in the past? Can the Minister trust the United Nations Relief and Works Agency when it comes to that, given its record and given the suggestions that tunnels were built under its very headquarters and that there was a data centre there flowing off UNRWA’s electricity supply? Can we place trust in an organisation with such a record?

[Anneliese Dodds]

Absolutely, the prevention of diversion of aid, not just in this context but more broadly wherever the UK is providing aid, is incredibly important. We take it very seriously indeed and we will always seek to ensure that there is absolutely watertight control around that, wherever UK taxpayers’ money is being used—as it is here—to support some of the people most in crisis on earth. The hon. Gentleman asked about the issue of UNRWA’s neutrality. We have covered that previously in the statement, but I just point again to the work that the UK has undertaken by providing support for UNRWA to implement the Colonna report.

Gibraltar-Spain Border Checks

Debate between Jim Allister and Anneliese Dodds

Monday 14th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jim Allister (North Antrim) (TUV)]

The Minister said that the Spanish authorities had assured the Government that the aggressive actions taken at the border were not centrally approved. Do the Government accept that? Never mind the Chagos islands: when the Spanish authorities attempt to insert themselves into Gibraltar, might they not be drawing more succour from the fact that the British Government allowed the EU to insert itself into the United Kingdom, put a border in the Irish sea and pass the laws that govern much of the economy of part of the United Kingdom? Might the Spanish authorities not be concluding in consequence that the UK Government are a soft touch when it comes to sovereignty?

[Anneliese Dodds]

I believe that the UK Government could not have been clearer in our representations on this matter, including to the Spanish Government. On 11 October, the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty), contacted, as I have mentioned, Minister Fernando Sampedro, his Spanish counterpart. The UK ambassador to Spain called on the Spanish Ministry of the Interior as well to inquire about this change in approach. We have made it clear that His Majesty’s Government will continue to work closely with HM Government of Gibraltar, including on border disruption planning, and we will do all that we can to ensure that, above all, the interests of Gibraltarians are front and centre. That is what is driving the Government response.