Bill saves posters from the shredder

Parties faced pulping leaflets printed under old rules

An emergency bill is going through parliament to save political parties from having to pulp millions of election posters and leaflets.

The Elections and Publications Bill, which gained all-party support in the House of Lords on Wednesday, is expected to be passed in time for the expected general election in May or June.

It will delay the implementation of new rules on election literature, which the parties feared would mean them having to destroy material already printed.

A huge quantity of literature has already been printed to comply with the old rules after party officials failed to spot the significance of the new regulations.

We faced the prospect of all the main parties and candidates having stocks of election publications which did not conform to the law.

Lord Bassam
Home Office Minister

The rules, which came into force in February, say candidates who publish material for their campaigns must now put their names and addresses in the formal list at the bottom of posters and leaflets.

Previously, only details of the publisher and printer had to be included.

Leaflet stocks

Home Office minister Lord Bassam told peers: "We faced the prospect of all the main parties and candidates, up and down the country, having stocks of election publications which did not conform to the law.

"The only alternative was primary legislation."

The bill was given its second reading with all-party support.

Conservative peer Lord Cope of Berkley said: "This is a nasty little mess and the bill is required to get us out of it."

Labour had been insisting last week that the new rules had not caused it problems.

It is now understood that all the main parties have been affected.

The revised rules were part of a wider government package to make the way elections are funded more transparent.