The second reading of the EU referendum bill today was dominated by questions about the voting franchise and the neutrality of Whitehall. On the first topic, the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Greens expressed concerns that 16 and 17 year olds won’t be allowed to vote. The SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond said it was ‘deeply insulting’ not to include under 18s in the referendum, while shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn said there was a ‘ring of familiarity’ to denying younger ‘uns the vote — a reference to similar arguments used in the past to deny women the vote.
Whereas the voting franchise is unlikely to stop the bill from moving forward, the lack of purdah is looking to be more problematic for the government. Usually in the run up to an election, the civil service is prohibited from publishing any material that could bias the outcome, so the whole machine remains neutral. This is period known as the purdah, the pre-election period. But in the case of the EU referendum, Philip Hammond said there will be no purdah for ‘operational and political reasons’. He explained ‘in the context of this referendum, that is unworkable and inappropriate’ and the government will ‘make a recommendation on where the national interest lies’.
This has upset people on all sides. Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, said he was minded to vote ‘In’ but argued there needs to be a ‘clear indication that it will be a level playing field and it will not be abused’. Arch Eurosceptic Peter Bone accused the government of using ‘the apparatus of the state to push a case rather than letting the two sides have equal and fair access’. Owen Paterson, another Eurosceptic former minister, warned that leafleting, policy documents and publications coming out of the government machine could have implications for the whole of the referendum. ‘If they have a sense that this was rigged, the result will not be legitimate’ he said.
The annoyance over no purdah is not restricted to the Conservative party. Labour’s Ian Austin, Ukip’s Douglas Carswell and the SNP’s Alex Salmond all expressed concerns about thousands of government-produced leaflets — with Carswell even suggesting an amendment to the bill that would enshrine the neutrality of the civil service in law. I understand that a good proportion of the Conservatives for Britain supporters are just as concerned about the neutrality of the civil service and these concerns will be made more public when the bill reaches the committee stage.
It’s an odd situation when Peter Bone and Alex Salmond find something to agree on. But the government clearly wants to win this referendum and will use every tool at its disposal to do, including the whole government machine. But they have to avoid calls that the result is illegitimate. The last thing the ‘In’ camp want is to give the impression of an establishment stitch-up, thereby encouraging an ‘Out’ vote.
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