Growing support for fairer voting

Liberal Democrats welcome increasing support for changes to a fairer voting system. At a recent Warrington Council meeting, the Leader was asked the views of the local Labour Party on this subject.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Cllr Bob Barr, asked: It has recently been reported in the press that at least one hundred Labour parties in England and the Welsh Government support a policy of proportional representation. A third of Labour MPs and three quarters of Labour members are said to back this move. Would the Leader tell us if this has been considered in Warrington?

The Council Leader replied that it was important people felt they were being represented, going on to state that Warrington South Constituency Labour Party had passed a motion in favour of proportional representation in Parliamentary elections.

A recent YouGov poll found greater support amongst the public for proportional representation (42%) than for the current electoral method (33%). The poll also found that four in ten Britons think the current system is unfair.

The UK is one of the few democracies still using First Past the Post. Where fairer voting systems have been introduced for the devolved Parliaments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, people getting a taste of these changes have not looked back.

It is also interesting to note that countries fostering more collaboration across different levels of government have been rewarded with greater public trust for their response to the COVID pandemic.