Thread by @BestForBritain

🚨THIS IS A DEMOCRATIC EMERGENCY🚨
The government’s utterly terrifying Elections Bill is back in parliament today. Here’s everything you need to know about the bill and the voting tonight. 🧵1/15

Along with the Policing Bill, Borders Bill, changes to both Judicial Review and the Official Secrets Act, the #ElectionsBill is part of the government’s attack on democracy and accountability in the UK.

With it they want to rig elections in their favour. 2/15

Working with peers and MPs, we’ve helped force the government into major concessions on the bill - including removing proposals that would have given ministers the power to ban campaigners they don’t like during elections. 3/15

BUT the worst part is still in there.

Clauses 14 & 15 would effectively give the government control of the UK’s independent elections watchdog, allowing them to influence how the rules during elections apply to them and their rivals. 4/15

Putting Ministers, most of whom stand for election, in charge of the Electoral Commission is like letting a fox guard the henhouse, or letting one team in a football match tell the referee what to do.

What’s worse, the government has given NO justification for it. 5/15

Conservative MPs have pretty much admitted this is revenge for the Electoral Commission investigating the Conservative Party and Vote Leave.

Imagine what they’ll try to get away with if they run it 😱😱😱 6/15

On Monday, with the help of Best for Britain, Peers backed an amendment which would remove this part of the bill, meaning MPs voted on it again today.

The Government used their majority to win by 306 votes to 215 in the Bill, and sent it back to the Lords. 7/15

This is a process aptly known as “ping pong”, where votes will be held by MPs and then by Lords until either the Lords give up, or the Government removes these parts of the bill.

But this is where it gets interesting... 8/15

Because of the May elections, this session of Parliament must end next week.

If the Lords can hold the line until then, the government will run out of time and the entire bill will be scrapped! 9/15

The Lords are expected to vote again at around 18:30 today. So let’s wargame what happens next. 10/15

👉Scenario 1:

Despite beating the government 265-199 on Monday, it could be that too few Peers vote against the Bill.

It could pass today and the government will be in charge of the elections watchdog very soon. We've been working hard to ensure enough of them show up! 11/15

👉Scenario 2:

Enough Peers hold strong 💪

The Bill goes back to MPs tonight after which the ping pong process continues, with the Bill going back to MPs for yet another vote, and so on potentially into next week when they will hit that deadline. 12/15

🔧Spanner in the works🔧

At any time the government could force Parliament to sit very late in the hope enough Peers won't be around to vote against them. They did this yesterday with the Policing Bill.

The result - protest will soon effectively be outlawed in the UK. 13/15

This is why it’s so important that opposition and cross bench Peers and MPs stay strong.

We must fight to protect the most basic part of our democracy - free and fair elections.

Our polling shows that ONLY 8% of people support the government's plans. 14/15

🏔️Final cliffhanger:

If the Lords let them win, the Government is getting ready to pull the plug and prorogue Parliament TOMORROW.

Stay tuned. 15/15