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Great Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has urged PM Keir Starmer’s Government to launch a review of the First Past the Post voting system used for Westminster elections.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, the Mayor of Greater Manchester said: “I appreciate they’re probably not ready to go out there to commit to a big change. But why not launch a review of the voting system for the House of Commons? And why not consider carefully whether Proportional Representation has the support of the country to bring it forward.”
At the same Labour for a New Democracy event on Sunday night, Professor Rob Ford of the University of Manchester agreed, arguing that ongoing volatility in Britain’s politics means Labour may be forced to act on electoral reform in the coming years.
He told delegates: “The strategic argument is [that] it’s in Labour’s interests to embrace the discussion about electoral reform now. Because it’s better for them to make the running and own this issue than be bounced into it five years down the line – when they may well face a situation where the price of continuing support is electoral reform.”
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The Labour Leadership has so far resisted calls from local parties, members, trade unions and annual conference to replace First Past the Post with a proportional voting system.
Andy Burnham has been one of the most vocal supporters in the party of a shift to Proportional Representation. But the Manchester Mayor’s comments will nonetheless add to pressure from the grassroots of the party.
Anna Dixon, Labour MP for Shipley, who chaired the event, revealed that she has joined the newly-formed All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections. Recently-elected Labour MP for St Austell and Newquay Noah Law also plans to join the group, which is co-chaired by Labour’s Alex Sobel MP.
The new All Party Group will campaign in Parliament for Proportional Representation, as well as measures to eliminate dark money and malicious disinformation in politics.
Anna Dixon MP said: “Some people may wonder why a Labour Party that has just won on the basis of the current First Past the Post system would want to open a debate again about PR… There are principled and pragmatic reasons why Labour has moved so strongly in favour of PR in recent years.”
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Caroline Osborne, from campaign group Labour for a New Democracy, added: “This is about restoring trust in our political system. It would be incredibly powerful to be able to say to voters that, for the first time, everyone will have a vote that really counts.
“It’s also about making sure the legacy of this Government is a stable, renewed Britain. If we can win a landslide majority with a third of the vote, so can other parties. Keeping this system in place is a reckless gamble with the country’s future.”
The recent general election has been branded the “most distorted” in British history by groups like Make Votes Matter.
Labour won a historic majority of seats despite receiving just a third of the votes cast. At the same time, one in five people voted for either the Greens or Reform, yet these parties share just one percent of MPs between them (nine out of 650).
Labour’s official policy programme recognises that “the flaws in the current voting system are contributing to the distrust and alienation we see in politics”. However, the manifesto was silent on the voting system and last April Byline Times revealed Keir Starmer was against a shift to PR.
Keir Starmer appeared to rule out moving to a proportional representation for Westminster voting during the General Election campaign. But after being elected the now-PM said “the fight for trust is the battle that defines our age”.
This June, Professor John Curtice and the National Centre for Social Research found that trust and confidence in British politics and elections had fallen to a record low, while proposals to change the voting system commanded record, majority support, running at 54% according to YouGov in July.
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MPs Push for PR
On 10 September, politicians from across the divide launched a new group in Parliament to push for electoral reform. Around 20 MPs and peers joined up to set up the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Fair Elections.
Labour MP and new chair Alex Sobel said the group was “on a mission to restore trust in politics”.
The APPG, which is backed by campaigners at Fair Vote UK, will push for measures including replacing First Past the Post with a proportional voting system, ending the influence of secretive funding or “dark money” in politics, and countering disinformation.
Campaigners see an opening for political reform, whether through the House of Commons’ new Modernisations Committee on updating parliamentary processes, or the upcoming legislation scrapping hereditary peers in the House of Lords.
The new all-party group warns that recent years of scandal as well as concerns over foreign interference in UK politics have exposed “critical vulnerabilities” in British elections.
The APPG’s Vice Chair, Green MP Ellie Chowns, said after the launch: “The point of elections is for everyone to have a real say about who represents them and what direction the country should go in. But thanks to First Past the Post, only four in ten voters got the local MP they chose for this year – and only one in three got the party they voted for in government.”
The APPG for Fair Elections will hold a public launch event in parliament in the coming months. Backers say it will play an active role bringing together campaigns both inside and outside Parliament.
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