‘Independents’ can keep true party allegiances from voters
Chief reporter Martin Shipton argues that ‘Independent’ election candidates should have to declare if they belong to a political party
TWO weeks ago the vice chairman of Ukip’s Delyn branch, Shaun Owen, made a statement to the media that was strongly critical of his party’s North Wales AM Michelle Brown.
He was, of course, perfectly entitled to do that.
For those of us who want a transparent society, however, it’s unacceptable that he’s allowed to describe himself as “Independent” on ballot papers for a Flintshire ward in the May 4 election.
In failing to tell people that he’s an office-holding member of Ukip, Mr Owen is not providing the voters he wants to elect him with a crucial piece of information about himself.
Yet as the law stands, he is doing nothing wrong.
Equally, the former Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales, Winston Roddick, was allowed to describe himself as an Independent when standing for election in 2012, even though he was a card-carrying member of the Liberal Democrats. In 2012 the Liberal Democrat brand was freshly toxic following the party’s decision not just to renege on its promise to scrap student tuition fees, but to go along with Tory plans that saw them nearly tripled. It is doubtful whether Mr Roddick would have been elected as Commissioner if he’d described himself as a Liberal Democrat on the ballot paper – and he’s shrewd enough to know that.
There are those who argue that Independent candidates should never be trusted because they refuse to accept the discipline that comes with belonging to a political party. I disagree. Over the many years I have taken an interest in politics and written about it, I have known some excellent Independent councillors, a number of whom were originally elected as members of a political party.
The manner of their becoming Independent has usually followed a pattern. They have been trying to do the best thing for the people they represent, but have been thwarted by control-freakery from group officials who insist they toe the party line, even when they do not believe what is being proposed is in the interests of their ward constituents.
It is, of course, entirely reasonable for a party group to expect its councillors to vote for policies that were included in the manifesto they were elected to support. But in several instances I have been aware of, group officials have sought to impose their rigid will on councillors in circumstances where no manifesto commitment is in play.
In one case, a councillor I knew left his party because he was instructed not to vote for the creation of a children’s play area in his ward. He did so, resigned from the party, and was a thorn in the side of his former colleagues until his death 25 years later.
Those with power in political parties don’t always make the right decisions, and sometimes good representatives are driven out. It’s healthy for democracy when they stand for election as Independents.
In 2005 the Labour Party was taught a lesson in Blaenau Gwent when it prevented its popular AM Peter Law from going for the Parliamentary nomination by imposing an all-women shortlist. He stood as an Independent and trounced the official Labour candidate, who had been imported from London to stand against him.
Not all Independents are former members of political parties. They, too, can be excellent public representatives. In Pembrokeshire there’s a young councillor called Jacob Williams who has done a sterling job in holding the locally powerful to account. He has exposed a succession of scandals on his own website and has been able to use his elected position to scrutinise further the actions of the authority’s administration and senior officers. In doing so, he exemplifies the course elected representatives should take, but few do.
Pembrokeshire, of course, is a strange kind of place in local government terms. It is run by an Independent group now calling itself Independent Plus, which has become the local establishment. To distinguish himself from Independent Plus, Jacob Williams – a different kind of Independent – has to point out that he is not aligned with it
Another way of putting it would be that he is an Independent Independent – but that’s probably making things more complicated than they need be.
There is, despite this, some truth in the argument that certain especially local authority candidates consciously disguise their true political allegiance when standing for election. In some cases such individuals are simply broadly sympathetic towards a party, but in others they are actually card-carrying party members. As with the case of Mr Roddick, it’s reasonable to assume that those in the latter category would not be elected if they stood under their true colours. Something should be done, I believe, about such candidates.
I’m pleased to say I’m not the first person to have made such an argument. Four years ago David Hanson, the Labour MP for Delyn, proposed to the House of Commons a Bill that would have sorted the issue out once and for all. Under his proposal, candidates who stood as Independents would have been obliged to declare their membership of a political party.
Mr Hanson told MPs: “My proposal would add transparency to our democracy and help ensure the public have the information they need to make an informed choice. It will not add undue stress or expense to the election procedure and could be done simply, without the need for a particularly big shake-up of electoral procedures. This small bit of information could go some way to ensuring that voters get what they think they are voting for, rather than for what they are actually voting for without realising it.”
Candidates who broke the rule would find their election declared void, the member disqualified from standing again and a by-election called.
Sadly, the proposal was voted down and we are left with a situation where candidates can conceal their true political allegiance and get elected under false pretences.
This is a stain on our democracy and I hope our Assembly will ban it in Wales.