Oral Answers to Questions

Tristram Hunt Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab)]

4. If he will publish an implementation plan alongside the introduction of legislative proposals for individual electoral registration.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Mark Harper)]

We will indeed be publishing an implementation timeline with our response to the Select Committee’s report. In it, we will consider implementing individual registration from the point of view of the elector, the administrators and the Government.

[Tristram Hunt]

The truth is that this is one of the most anti-democratic Governments of modern Britain. They are having the longest parliamentary term in the world outside Rwanda, and their rushed plans for voter registration now threaten to disfranchise Britain. As well as committing himself to publishing an implementation plan, will the Deputy Prime Minister commit himself to a phased introduction of voter registration, an end to the opt-out clause, and a full household canvass in 2014?

[Mr Harper]

I do not think that the hon. Gentleman received the memo from his Front Benchers, who took a much more sensible position during the debate the other day. The right hon. Member for Tooting (Sadiq Khan) said:

“I welcome the process that the Government have adopted and how they are acting on this matter. We have had a draft Bill and a White Paper with pre-legislative scrutiny, and the Deputy Prime Minister has said twice on the Floor of the House that the Government are willing to listen to concerns”.—[Official Report, 16 January 2012; Vol. 538, c. 475.]

I think that the hon. Gentleman ought to check what his party’s position is.