Blunkett warns Burnham over electoral reform plan as some Labour MPs voice opposition

Former Labour home secretary Lord (David) Blunkett has warned UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham against changing the voting system, as several Labour MPs said they opposed moving to proportional representation (PR), The i Paper and PoliticsHome reported on Sunday 18 October.

In his speech to Labour’s conference last month, Burnham announced a “national commission on electoral reform” and a “manifesto commitment to change the electoral system so that everyone’s vote counts and everyone’s voice is heard”. He said the first-past-the-post system risked opening the “door of Number 10 to a divisive government on less than 30 per cent of the vote”.

Writing in The i Paper, Blunkett, whom the paper described as Burnham’s political mentor, pointed to Israel’s general election later this month as an example of “how tiny minorities representing not only outlandish views, but providing a blockage on progress” can shape outcomes under PR. “Be extremely careful – extremely careful – what you wish for,” he said. He said he wanted to keep single-member constituencies.

Jonathan Brash, Labour MP for Hartlepool, said: “I would never support a system that weakened that relationship between an MP and the people they represent.” Other Labour MPs told The i Paper anonymously that they opposed PR; a Welsh Labour MP called it a “terrible idea”.

Alex Sobel, chair of the Fair Elections All Party Parliamentary Group, told The i Paper that a majority of Labour MPs supported an independent commission, which he said should take 12 months. “The overwhelming mood in the Labour Party is for PR,” Neal Lawson of the campaign group Compass said, according to PoliticsHome.