LABOUR ACCUSED OF SELF INTEREST OVER FAIR VOTES CHALLENGE

“Labour has ‘picked' at our call for electoral reform for its own self interest and ignored the main issue”, says Lib Dem Cllr Daniel Lee, who proposed that Cambridge City Council calls for the government to explore options for a fairer voting system.

In his speech to the council Cllr Lee referred to votes in the recent general election, pointing out that Labour was not the majority party, but the largest minority party, with twice their number of votes going to other parties.: "They won just 33.7% of the vote which translated to 63.2% of the seats in Parliament and consequently 100% of the power.”

Cllr Lee said that apart from being simply unfair, the current system encouraged an adversarial political culture and that its suppression of so many preferences, risked alienating people from the system completely.

Labour amended the motion to refer only to the restoration of the alternate vote in Mayoral and Police Commissioner elections.

After the meeting Cllr Lee commented: 

“I think Labour will have disappointed many people who hoped for better from them. They have portrayed themselves as against self interest, yet when it comes to the voting system, they are happy to benefit from blatant unfairness themselves, and they don’t seem to care about the consequences for political engagement and legitimacy in this country.

“It’s only 2 years ago that Labour’s members voted at their conference to support a proportional voting system, yet it was smothered by their leaders. After now benefitting themselves, they regard it as an embarrassing question and prefer to look away. Yet they single out the Mayoral and Police Commissioner elections for fairer votes for the single reason that they think it will benefit their own chances.

“The Liberal Democrats have historically been losers from the First Past the Post system, but with our fantastic results this year, our representation happens to roughly match our share of the national vote. For us, fair votes is one of our values  - a matter of principle, who we are. It's about wanting a country where people’s voices are heard rather than simply suppressed."