LABOUR has said that it will repeal the controversial Lobbying Act if it gains power at the next general election.
The legislation, which became law earlier this year, is supposed to bring transparency to the lobbying of ministers and senior civil servants.
However it has been widely denounced by charities and campaign groups, who say it will restrict their campaigning during elections, while critics say the measures on professional lobbyists are so weak they amount to a "lobbyists charter".
The shadow leader of the Commons, Angela Eagle, said that a Labour government would replace it with a universal register of all professional lobbyists backed by a code of conduct and sanctions.
"The Tory-led Government's gagging law is an illiberal attack on our democracy," she said.
"It was cooked up in a shabby deal between David Cameron and Nick Clegg. It lets vested interests off the hook, and it gags charities and grassroots campaigners who want to hold the Government to account for their broken promises at the next election.
"Labour will repeal the Act and will instead legislate for the reform that our politics needs. We will do what Cameron and Clegg didn't - and consult with charities and campaigners about how to ensure transparency in our elections while protecting freedom of speech."
The legislation finally received the Royal Assent in February after a turbulent passage through Parliament, with ministers forced to use their Commons majority to overturn a series of amendments by the House of Lords.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article