Our voting system needs a shake-up

THE proposal to reduce the number of MPs representing Welsh constituencies by a quarter keeps coming back, and the chances are that this time it will be successful.

When it was put forward in the last Parliament, the finely balanced membership of the Commons meant it was easy to defeat – particularly as a significant number of Tory MPs in England would also have been included in the planned cull.

On this occasion, however, Wales is due to take the biggest hit with plans it could still lose 10 of its 40 current constituencies, and it will be difficult to find sympathetic allies elsewhere in the UK.

While the supposed justification for cutting the number of Welsh MPs is that in mathematical terms based on population, Wales is over-represented, we all know that the Conservatives would be the biggest beneficiaries of such changes.

It is suggested that the current allocation of seats in Wales is unfair because it favours a status quo that is biased towards Labour.

There may be some truth in this, but the way to introduce improvements is to create a fairer voting system overall – not to replace one skewed arrangement by another.

The time is long overdue for a move towards the Single Transferable Vote for all public elections in the UK.

The persistence of the “First Past The Post” electoral system at Westminster was meant to ensure clear outcomes, even if strictly speaking they were not “fair”.

But there is a fairer voting system used across the world that guarantees a proportional outcome and that people can buy into.

The debate about how many MPs to elect from Wales cannot be divorced from the parallel debate about how many AMs should be elected to the Senedd.

If proportionality is to be the deciding factor, the number of Members of the Senedd – as they will soon be known – needs to be increased.

At present Wales is losing out badly in comparison with the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly in terms of the numbers of members, their workloads and the essential time needed to scrutinise properly in important times.

It has, we believe, been demonstrated conclusively that the Senedd needs more members if it is to function efficiently and effectively in holding the Welsh Government to account.