29 September 2009

Labour rose

PM commits to referendum on electoral reform -

In his keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference this afternoon the Prime Minister announced that the Labour Party will commit to hold a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons in the next Parliament.

I have been calling for reform to the voting system for a long time now and I am pleased to see this issue right up there on the Labour Party’s agenda.

Over the last year we have seen a clear public demand for a fairer voting system and it is good that the Labour Party has responded to that. This referendum will give us the chance to establish the principle that every MP who represents their constituents in the House of Commons should be elected with the support of at least half of their constituents.

This poses questions for the other political parties. We know that the Lib Dems support electoral reform but we now need to hear from the Tories – do they agree with the principle that every MP should be elected with the support of at least half of their constituents?

There are still a number of issues to look at. For example, a simple form of the ‘Alternative Vote’ system could still leave the proportion of seats in Parliament out of line with the support for parties across the country. But there are ways of correcting that, such as through the AV+ system recommended by the Jenkins Commission setup by Labour in the 1990s. These issues will need to be considered as we move towards implementing the referendum commitment.

This is unfinished business for Labour – a commitment was included in our 1997 manifesto. I would have liked us to act already but the important thing now is to make this referendum happen – and it is for all of us to make sure that it does.

PRIMARY COLOUR 850000 More updates from the Labour Party Conference in Brighton online here