Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, moved Third Reading of the Representation of the People Bill at 7.52pm on Wednesday 2 September, the final Commons vote on a bill's text1. Seven minutes later the House divided, the formal recorded vote, and passed it by 411 votes to 1022. The Bill now goes to the House of Lords, where peers can amend every clause before Royal Assent.
This is the finance Bill that Parliament dropped before May's council elections and revived in July, after the Government accepted the Rycroft Review in full. Reform UK fought the whole local campaign without it. It arrives at the Lords still carrying the retrospective cryptoasset ban tabled in the summer, which means the rules will reach gifts accepted months before anyone signs the Act.
Danny Kruger, Reform UK's member of Parliament for East Wiltshire, called the Bill "a flagrantly partisan attempt to kneecap Reform UK" and objected to the exemption written in for trade union money3. Katie Lam told the House the Conservatives would oppose it. Lisa Smart confirmed Liberal Democrat support, citing votes at 16 and the "know your donor" checks the Bill imposes on parties4.
Which parties made up the 102 Noes has not been published, so the composition of the opposition stays unconfirmed beyond the Conservatives' stated intent5. The Bill's stages record still carries no date for peers to begin6. A Commons majority of that size usually survives the Lords intact, but until Royal Assent the crypto ban, the overseas cap and the absent donation limit all remain amendable text rather than law.
