Hain backs Alternative Vote system
Outspoken Leader of the House of Commons Peter Hain has called for an end to the traditional first-past-the- post voting system.
The minister told Labour MPs in the House of Commons last night that the Alternative Vote system would give voters a greater sense of ownership over politics.
The Welsh secretary’s speech has angered party members, many of whom believe that changing the voting system would slash Labour’s Commons majority and could even force the party into a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
The Alternative Vote system (AV) allows voters to cast a vote for first and second choice candidates and means that no MP would be elected to Parliament on less than fifty per cent of the vote. The system is used in Australia.
Mr Hain said, “A new system like AV will, I believe, improve the incentives to vote and remove many of the barriers that are inherent in our current system.
“Crucially, AV will give voters a greater sense of influence and ownership over the political process. This is the key – a politics which is owned by the people not by the politicians.”
The minister said the party needed to make electoral reform a manifesto commitment in order to tackle falling voter turnout, but stressed that supporters of proportional representation, the system used by Irish voters, must realise that MPs would not vote for a system which could cost many of them their jobs.
A spokesman for No 10 said that the Cabinet had not discussed the issue of reforming the voting system in recent months.
Mr Hain insisted that current frustration with first-past-the-post ballots had led to many voters choosing to vote tactically in the form of a protest and warned that the use of protest votes could hand seats back to the Conservatives next year.
However, the Commons leader pointed out that increased involvement in writing to MPs, signing petitions or attending demonstrations showed a growing interest in politics.
He also cautioned Labour voters that they risked the government’s majority if they used the General Election next year to protest against the war in Iraq.
Speaking at the meeting, organised by pressure group Make Votes Count, Mr Hain said: “The consequences of being prepared to vote Lib Dem, for example, just to give us a bloody nose will not be the re-election of a Labour Government but the letting in of Tories into scores of marginal seats across the land.”
The government has already unveiled plans for a review of the voting system following the European and council elections in June. Labour’s National Policy Forum is due to discuss voting reforms later this week.
