The Government Cannot Restore Trust in our Democracy Without Electoral Reform

Transcript

00:00Deputy Speaker, there are lots of things that the Liberal Democrats and I welcome in this

00:03strategy.

00:04I just wondered if the Minister might be able to outline and explain why there is that difference

00:10between Westminster elections and combined and mayoral elections.

00:14We know that a majority of the British public want to see the scrapping of first-pass-the-post.

00:18We know a majority of people in this place, when we had a ten-minute rule bill in this

00:21Parliament, want to see the scrapping of first-pass-the-post.

00:24We know a majority of Labour members want to see the scrapping of first-pass-the-post.

00:29So why is there that difference between these different types of elections?

00:34The Honourable Member may have critiques of the first-pass-the-post system, but it provides

00:40a direct relationship between members of the Legislature and local constituencies, which

00:44is really important.

00:49The Liberal Democrats, in coalition with the Conservatives for five years, had the opportunity

00:55to introduce a referendum.

00:56They lost that referendum.

00:58The focus and the supplementary voting system was the voting system implemented on the introduction

01:02of both mayoral and Police Crime Commission elections.

01:06We believe it is more appropriate for selecting single-person executives there.

01:09Kevin

01:10What?