A Labour Prime Minister has announced a commission on electoral reform. Where have we heard this one before?
For those who remember, or, like me, are interested in political history, you would know that Andy Burnham isn’t the first Labour leader to announce the creation of a commission on electoral reform; that accolade belongs to Tony Blair.
Time for a quick crash course: as part of their 1997 election manifesto, New Labour committed to holding a referendum on an alternative voting system to First Past the Post. After entering office, Blair asked Lord Jenkins to head a commission on electoral reform, later called the Jenkins Commission.
The commission’s result was the “AV+” voting system: 80% of MPs would be elected in single-member constituencies via a run-off system, with the remaining 20% elected via a “top-up” system using regional lists. While it wasn’t supported unanimously by the Commission, with Lord Alexander of Weedon opposed to maintaining single-member constituencies, it was the final product of the Commission. It presented a viable alternative to First Past the Post.
So, with the Commission’s work complete, Blair’s response was… to ignore it. Instead of following through on his party’s manifesto pledge, Blair kicked the can down the road. He faced pressure from trade unions not to change the voting system, along with a cabinet split on whether to honour the pledge. Lord Jenkins even went on record saying he doubted Tony Blair would ever support electoral reform, adding that political parties “rarely had the courage” to make changes that would damage their electoral prospects when they had the power to do so.
So it’s clear that there is reason to refrain from fully buying into Andy Burnham’s pledge to deliver electoral reform. That said, it’s certainly a welcome change to have a Prime Minister not only talk about electoral reform, but commit to exploring what options are available to us.
After the infamous AV Referendum of 2011, which it needs to be stressed is NOT a proportional voting system, along with Blair’s backtracking on the Jenkins Commission, I think it’s more than understandable to be critical of the Tories and Labour whenever they discuss electoral reform.
But with the Electoral Reform Society and Compass celebrating Burnham’s speech announcing a National Commission for Electoral Reform, along with the National Centre for Social Research’s 2025 report citing low trust in governments driving a growing demand for proportional representation, we might be able to let ourselves believe that, this time, things will be different.
* Jack Meredith is a member of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Wales Chair for Centre Think Tank. His writing focuses on democratic reform, social justice, economic democracy, and the institutional foundations of effective government. He has written for Lib Dem Voice, Liberator, Fabians, Centre Write, Nation.Cymru, and Bylines Cymru.
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2 Comments
Burnham has committed to a Commission, he’s also saying he will (but hasn’t yet) put a clear commitment to electoral reform in the Manifesto. He hasn’t said the proposals he enacts if elected will be those the Commission recommends. He’s also muddling the concepts of proportionality and reform, and loudly praising Supplementary Vote as if it offers both.
SV (a Labour invention) arguably is the most timid form of reform imaginable, the closest to the current system yet proposed, and the idea its proportional or even semi-proportional is [redacted] and its insane that Labour people keep saying this, but might be welcome in some ways.
Meanwhile the Guardian and More In Common have recently touted models of PR (closed-list, MMP and STV) based on enormous and – in my view unworkable and alienating regional constituencies. Obviously this is just hypothetical but there will be people who do want that. Labour in Wales participated in a closed-list model with large constituencies that has given away all control over who your local representative is all together.
That Burnham is moving is good, but there’s a lot to be worked through.
Labour have always failed to deliver on electoral reform. They reneged on the agreement to have PR in European elections at the time of the LibLab pact (1976-8), Blair reneged on a manifesto commitment as already mentioned, they actively campaigned against AV in the AV referendum, despite offering it if the LibDems went into coalition with them and I have no reason to believe they will deliver now.
It’s all talk. Yes, there may be a commission, but it will take a long time to deliver its verdict and will almost certainly not recommend any proper PR system and even if it does, will Labour even deliver it after the next election if they are still in power?
Let’s meet the constituency link full on. Most people now don’t have an MP of their political persuasion, so effectively there’s no link anyway. Under STV, most people would have an MP of their persuasion that they could approach on the rare occasion they need an MP.
And, much more importantly, voters would decide which of the candidates, put in front of them by political parties, they will support, not political parties. Any other PR system will leave control of who is elected largely to political parties.
I’m not holdong my breath on this one.