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Dear John,

The Open Britain team went to Labour Party Conference in Liverpool this week hoping to see evidence that our calls for a National Commission on Electoral Reform were gaining traction: we were NOT disappointed!

On Sunday, at a standing room only Labour4PR rally, we heard numerous MPs and other key Labour figures express strong support for PR in general and for the NCER specifically. Clearly, the work of the APPG for Fair Elections - which Open Britain founded and which we continue to drive - has registered with people across the party.

Among the many supportive speeches was one by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who said:

“I’m here to endorse the call for a National Commission to be set up in this Parliament, and a manifesto commitment to a system of proportional representation”.

Having the support of such a senior party figure, who is willing to push the current Labour government to adopt policies the British people want to see, is a huge boost to our objective of securing an NCER. With 60% (and growing) of the public now in favour of PR, we hope the government will soon accept that the NCER is a sensible first step towards renewing our crumbling democracy as part of its programme to “Renew Britain”.

On Monday, at an event jointly hosted by the Fabians and the APPG for Fair Elections, we heard from MPs, activists and academics how an NCER would put rocket boosters under Labour’s plans to rebuild public trust in politics. Alex Sobel MP, Chair of the APPG, commented on the growing calls for an NCER:

“The government needs to wake up - and is starting to wake up”, adding that “support is growing in the Parliamentary Labour Party”.

While this event was taking place, in a different part of the Conference, Deputy Leadership hopeful Lucy Powell confirmed in a Q&A session that she has “always supported electoral reform”, acknowledging that “it comes up all the time, it’s very important to party members”…so it looks like we could have another powerful advocate if she is successful in her bid.

The conference reached its climax on Tuesday afternoon when Keir Starmer delivered his leader’s speech. The theme underpinning his speech was captured in the two words on the front of his lectern: “Renew Britain”.

While the Prime Minister did not mention electoral reform explicitly, if he is serious about translating his words into action and putting politics at the service of working people, he could do nothing better than agreeing to the establishment of an NCER, the first step in ensuring all in society have their voices heard and represented.

So, while Conference delivered no monumental breakthrough, we saw plenty of evidence that we are making strong progress, persuading more people that PR is key to getting our country back on track, and that an NCER is the best way to define and secure that change.

Remember, all of this is down to you! Everything we do is made possible by your support. With your support, we have managed to build the biggest APPG in Parliament (with more members recruited during Conference!). And with your support, we will continue to grow our movement until our calls for change are impossible to ignore.

Thank you for standing with us. Together, we’ll renew British democracy!

James Patrick

Campaigns and Content Officer

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