MP Kinnock is inspired and hungry for change
LABOUR should take forward the legacy of the suffragettes by pledging to scrap an electoral system that is “poisonous for our democracy”, according to Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock.
Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of women winning the vote and Mr Kinnock – along with Arfon Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams – will join campaigners in going without food for 24 hours in a symbolic “hunger strike” in commemoration of the suffragettes’ battle.
Mr Kinnock believes the first-pastthe-post voting system could be replaced with proportional representation without a referendum if it was on the basis of manifesto commitments.
He argues the present system used to choose MPs focuses parties’ attention on “swing seats” and is a key reason why Britain’s prosperity is concentrated in London and the south east of England.
He points to Germany as an example of a country that uses proportional representation and has both sustained its manufacturing base and made great efforts to revive poorer regions.
His call to change the way MPs are elected comes on the heels of a major report by an expert panel which recommended that the National Assembly adopt the Single Transferable Vote form of proportional representation and introduce a gender quota.
Mr Kinnock denounced first past the post as “dysfunctional and outdated”, saying: “Of the 650 seats that decide who forms a government, we know that there’s probably between 100 and 130 that really make the difference – the so-called swing seats. I think it’s just undemocratic that your entire system hinges on what happens in a relatively small percentage of the actual seats that are out there.
“It’s poisonous for our democracy because it means that rather than take a ‘whole nation’ approach and think about what is required across the whole country in terms of policies, resources, distribution of wealth and equality, [you] end up being driven by the views of a particular section of the electorate in those 100-130 seats.”
He pointed out that in the 2015 election Ukip won nearly four million votes yet only one MP was elected. The Greens also won more than one million votes but, again, sent just one MP to Westminster.
Mr Kinnock said: “I don’t think that’s healthy or right – and I think it’s led to a huge amount of disenfranchisement, disillusionment and disenchantment with the system which has led to us being, I think, a very polarised and divided country.”
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition held a referendum on the Alternative Vote system in 2011 which was heavily defeated.
Mr Kinnock said: “I’m not advocating another referendum. With AV it became effectively a referendum on Nick Clegg.”
He argues parties could commit in their manifestos to holding a constitutional convention which would bring forward proposals for electoral change that would then be voted on in Parliament.
Coalitions are the norm in countries such as Germany which use proportional representation.
He said: “If that’s the price you pay to get balance, pragmatic, successful government which delivers for the people, that’s a price worth paying.”
Praising Germany’s approach to the economy, he said: “One of the reasons the Germans have done so well is (a) because they have had a very decentralised federal system and (b) because they’ve had proportional representation which has distributed power and resources and policy priorities far more effectively across the country.”