Archive for July, 2009

The word “historic” is criminally overused in politics these days. Every dreary byelection is described as a “historic victory” for someone. And every petty backbench rebellion is described as a “historic defeat” for somebody else.

But I think what is happening now in parliament can truly be described as historic.

The speaker of the House of Commons has been forced out of office under a cloud for the first time in more than 300 years. The mid-term polls for the government and the prime minister have recently dipped to the lowest ever recorded for a party in power. And MPs have been humiliated over their abuse of the expenses system.

These are historic events, but I think they also hand those of us who are interested in political reform a historic opportunity.

In the past MPs have been understandably wary of voting for changes that could cost them their jobs. But right now parliament is on the back foot, and MPs are desperate to make concessions to get back in our good books.

Opportunities like this don’t come along very often. That’s why I believe we have to act now to fix our flawed electoral system. And flawed it is.

Take third parties. In 1983 Margaret Thatcher won her second Conservative victory on the back of the Falklands war. Labour did pretty badly with only 28% of the popular vote, but still won more than 200 seats. However, the SDP-Liberal Alliance polled only 2% less but won 190 fewer seats.

Our system also discriminates against the Tories. Because of differences in turnout in safe seats there’s a built-in bias of almost 10% against the Conservative party right now. In 2001 a Labour lead of 9% gave it a majority of 165. But in 1992 a similar lead by the Tories gave them a majority of just 21.

Now I’m a Labour parliamentary candidate – so I certainly don’t want to see a Tory victory. But it would be far worse to see them cheated out of one.

In any case, Labour has plenty of experience being screwed over by the electoral system. For example in 1951 we won the popular vote by a quarter of a million votes, but because of flaws in the system the Conservatives went on to form a government with a majority of five.

Every party has been cheated by the system – and so has the electorate. That’s why I want to see a referendum on the electoral system, and I want to see it at the next general election.

The government is making encouraging noises, but to stand any chance of this happening this promise has to feature in November’s Queen’s Speech. The government has a 5 November deadline to fix a broken system.

Keeping momentum going to hit that deadline is what the Vote for a Change campaign is all about.

Many of the MPs who have been caught claiming phoney expenses in recent weeks have tried to excuse their behaviour by saying it was ‘within the rules’.Others have tried to make amends by paying the money back.The truth is that this is not good enough, not least because the MPs themselves made the rules.

It is no excuse for a public servant to say that immoral behaviour is within the rules. We expect them to know right from wrong, not what they can get away with. We expect our MPs to act with integrity.

Gordon Brown’s reforms will mean that the rules MPs have made to govern how they are paid will soon be out of date.

But integrity will never be out of date.

I want things done differently.

• MPs have chosen not to reveal the full details of their expenses, but have ‘blacked out’ crucial information.  We need full disclosure.
• MPs have been allowed to make their own rules for far too long. The pay and expenses system must be governed by an independent body, and linked to salaries in the private sector.
• There should be no such thing as a ‘safe seat’. Every MP must risk losing their seat at every election. We need a fairer voting system which makes it harder for MPs to ‘get away with it’.

I am calling for root and branch reform of the political system. If you agree, please get in touch.

This is how local MP Mark Field’s expenses have been published. Vital information has been ‘blacked out’. I am calling for full disclosure when MPs spend taxpayer’s money.