Dear John

I wanted to update you on the Elections Bill. 

It has been going through Committee Stage in the House of Lords which involves Peers going through the Bill line by line and analysing and debating it. We thought we’d give you a quick update on its progress.

• The Lords have now debated the clauses in the Bill which seek to remove the independence of the Electoral Commission. Many Lords, including several Conservatives, described these parts of the Bill as an affront to democracy and argued that the clauses on the Electoral Commission risked permanently biasing our electoral system towards the party currently in power.
  
  
• The Lords have begun discussion of clauses in the Bill relating to election campaign spending and donations. Many have raised issues identified by Best for Britain in our briefings to Peers which highlighted that certain parts of the Bill ignore the important Committee on Standards in Public Life report, Regulating Election Finance, which was published last year.
  
  
• Lord Hodgson spoke about two amendments to the Bill that had been developed directly in consultation with Best for Britain. These amendments look to reduce the chilling effect on smaller civil society organisations that the Bill could cause. 

There’s plenty more to come in the next few days and weeks, but progress has been very encouraging so far. Do read our latest blog on the Elections Bill proceedings to find out more:

The Government is rightly fighting autocracy abroad by supporting Ukraine. But it’s promoting ever more authoritarianism at home. Nowhere is this more evident than with the Elections Bill. So, as ever, THANK YOU for supporting this vital work. Without your dedicated campaigning, your persistence with petitions and your generous donations, our work would not have the reach that it has, and our ideas would not get the coverage they need. We are truly grateful for all your help. 

Together, we are protecting British democracy.

Best wishes,

Naomi Smith 

CEO - Best for Britain

P.S. If you are able to continue to support our regular engagement efforts with parliamentarians, and all the research that goes into this, do consider becoming a regular donor.