Dear John,
Earlier this year, Open Britain called on Keir Starmer to make a public commitment to Proportional Representation within the first hundred days of the widely anticipated Labour government.
Following his landslide victory at the general election, I wrote to Starmer letting him know that more than 50,000 people had signed the petition backing our call.
I have JUST received a reply to that correspondence, from Rushanara Ali MP, the junior minister at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government with responsibility for democracy.
The meat of her response is in three short paragraphs:
“I have noted your comments about the voting system used for UK Parliamentary elections. The voting system used to elect our representatives sits at the heart of our democracy and is of fundamental importance, and we welcome your interest in this important topic.
The Government has no plans to change the electoral system for UK Parliamentary elections or local council elections in England.
The Government believes that the First Past The Post system, whilst not perfect, provides for a direct relationship between the member of the legislature and the local constituency.”
It’s difficult to understand why it took nearly three months to send such a thin response, but there you are.
So, what should we take from this? The short answer is: Nothing much that’s new.
Remember, it is more than a year since Labour’s National Policy Forum adopted a policy which acknowledged that FPTP drives “alienation and distrust” in our politics but pointed out that there is not yet any national consensus on what should replace it. In short, “We don’t like where we are but we’re not sure where we should go.”
What this letter tells us is that the Government recognises the fundamental importance of ensuring that our democracy commands public trust and confidence but still doesn’t know which alternative to FPTP would deliver that. They are stuck in an unhappy place.
I think we can help them with that conundrum.
Next Monday, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections - which Open Britain helps to support - will mark its public launch with the publication of new report outlining its proposals to get democracy back on track. Those proposals will address the APPG’s three areas of concern - FPTP, ‘dark money’ and disinformation - and could help ‘unstick’ the debate about our electoral system.
If the tone of the government’s letter is anything to go by, they may well welcome some fresh ideas.
All the best,
M
