Electoral reform ‘ front and centre’ of agenda for contender

Electoral reform would have to be “front and cent re” of t alks f or t he Lib Dems to enter a new coalition, one of the party’s leadership contenders has said.

The Lib Dems’ deputy leader Jo Swinson said she would not enter a coalition with Labour or the Conservatives at the moment because the current leadership of both parties was “fundamentally opposed to our core values”.

But Ms Swinson, who ser ved as a minister i n the former coalition government, said yesterday that fundamental political reform would have to front and centre of any future coalition talks.

She said: “Currently, the leadership of those parties is so fundamentally opposed to our core values that that [ a coalition] isn’t possible.

“Strategically, for solving the problems within our politics, we need to change the broken way in which we do things.

“One of the key things that needs to happen as we address the political chaos is, we need to change our electoral system.

“That’s par t of what’s going wrong. In any future discussions with any leaders t hat are not so diametrically opposed to our values, that fundamental political reform has to be front and centre.”

She added: “There’s no way we can go forward in the future in those t ype of ar r angements without securing that political reform.”

The East Dunbartonshire MP said stopping Brexit was a fight that could be won and support for a People’s Vote was growing.