Individual Electoral Registration

Eleanor Laing Excerpts

Wednesday 15th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. A great many right hon. and hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye, so I appeal for short questions and short answers.

[Mrs Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con)]

I thank the shadow Lord Chancellor for his courtesy in telling me a short while ago that he was going to mention what I had said on this matter. As this might really be his very last appearance at the Dispatch Box—we hope for a Frank Sinatra-style comeback, of course—I should like to pay tribute to him and wish him well on behalf of Members on both sides of the House. He will recall that we have argued over this matter for more than five years. The previous Government delayed and delayed, but at the eleventh hour they at last brought in individual voter registration. However, they still built in delays. Of course I have said in the past that I do not want anything to undermine the integrity of the democratic system, and I stick to that, but nothing that the Minister has said today appears to undermine that integrity. On the contrary, he has said that he will proceed carefully, step by step, and he has assured us that he has learned from the Northern Ireland experience. Also, the new system that he has devised will save money as well as time.

[Mr Harper]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her comments, and I agree with every word that she said, including her fulsome tribute to the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw). I thank her for her intervention.