Sir Ed Davey has challenged incoming prime minister Andy Burnham to introduce proportional representation (PR) before the next general election – and to do it without holding a referendum. The Liberal Democrat leader said his party was ready to work with Labour on changing the voting system, warning that if Burnham waited until after the next election it might be “too late”.
“If he is serious about changing the way we do politics, my door is open,” Davey said in a speech to the Institute for Government think tank in central London. He argued that electoral reform was not a “nerdy obsession of political anoraks” but was key to “solving the problems that ordinary people face every day”.
“Ed Davey urges incoming PM Andy Burnham to introduce proportional representation without a referendum.”
“Our broken political system is the reason why so much in our country isn’t working the way it should, and why it never seems to get fixed,” Davey told the audience. His message to Burnham: “Be bold, be brave. Fix the broken electoral system by introducing proportional representation. To give everyone an equal vote and an equal voice in our democracy.”
Burnham, who is set to be confirmed as Labour leader on Friday and become prime minister on Monday, said last year: “There is nothing more unstoppable than an idea whose time has come, and PR’s time has come.” But during his by-election campaign last month, he suggested he would not change the voting system immediately. Last week, in a Reddit forum, Burnham wrote that he would “seek to persuade my own party” to include a commitment to electoral reform in Labour’s next election manifesto, adding: “I am a strong supporter of electoral reform, partly because I believe it will enable the change to a more collaborative politics, and one that is less about point-scoring and more about problem-solving.”
More than 80 Labour MPs have signed an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill calling for a commission on electoral reform to investigate ways to ensure the voting system is “fair, representative and sustains public confidence”. The amendment, backed by Lib Dem MPs and others, has been tabled by Labour’s Alex Sobel and is set to be debated in the autumn – an early test for Burnham on the issue.
The UK already uses a patchwork of voting systems: only the Westminster Parliament and local authorities in England and Wales retain first-past-the-post (FPTP). Davey’s challenge now forces Burnham to decide whether PR’s “time has come” fast enough to risk a autumn rebellion within his own party.