Flaws in MEP election

SIR – Steven Woolfe has indicated that, having left Ukip, he will now continue as an independent MEP (report, October 17). He is perfectly entitled to do this; yet the decision highlights two flaws in the “party list” system of proportional representation used to elect our MEPs since 1999.

First, under this system, voters can only choose a party, not an individual candidate. This impersonal aspect makes it impossible for Mr Woolfe, or any other British MEP, to claim the sort of personal mandate allowed by the Westminster electoral system.

Secondly, because MPs are the sole representatives of their constituencies, they have an opportunity, should they abandon their former party, to precipitate a by-election under their new colours. Under the PR system, this honourable course of action is impossible. This means that when an MEP dies, defects or resigns, the vacancy will usually be filled by someone from the same party who was an unsuccessful member of that party’s regional list at the last election. Head of Politics Manchester Grammar School