‘We need council proportional representation’

Rob Telford, Green group leader on Bristol City Council and a former democratic reform spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales, explains why he is lobbying the council to introduce proportional representation in local elections.

You’ve probably heard all the stats by now. But let’s make sure.

At this year’s General Election over five million people voted for two parties (Green and Ukip) who won two seats between them, while less than 1.5 million votes gave the Scottish National Party 56 seats.

The SNP won 50 per cent of the Scottish vote share, but 95 per cent of Scottish seats. Labour saw their vote share increase (28.9 per cent to 30.4 per cent), but still lost 24 seats.

The Conservatives won an overall majority (50.8 per cent of seats in parliament) on a minority of the vote (36.9 per cent). They only increased their vote share by 0.8 per cent and only 24.39 per cent of the registered electorate voted Tory.

The Liberal Democrats now have eight seats, despite winning 7.9 per cent of the vote. (7.9 per cent would give them 51 MPs under a pure proportional system.)

The result was the most disproportionate in British election history.

Nearly half a million people signed petitions calling for electoral reform in the fortnight after the election.

Neither of the two largest parties has achieved anywhere close to 50 per cent of the vote for over 40 years.

Multi-party politics is now established in the UK, and yet our political system does not allow for its effective representation in Parliament or in town and city halls across the country.

The cause of proportional representation has received a spike in interest – particularly among young active citizens – in the last two months and there have been renewed calls for a unifying thread to be found within progressive forces – Labour, Lib Dem, Green, SNP, Plaid Cymru – and for friendly conversations to begin again.

For these forces – largely powerless to stop the Tories’ dismantling of the welfare state on the votes of only 24 per cent of people – proportional representation truly becomes a social justice issue.

So how do we make it happen? The Green group here in Bristol have submitted a motion to Tuesday’s Full Council meeting, calling on the mayor to use the Sustainable Communities Act to make a proposal for Bristol to become a pilot for local proportional representation.

These things are always long shots in such a centralised state as the UK, but similar debates engendered in councils across the country could be the start of a shift in approach from the two largest parties, particularly amongst their local activists and policy-formers.

Let’s rewind for a second and give some of the context.

It is widely acknowleged that the last big chance for reform – the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum in May 2011 – was lost on a wave of “let’s give that traitor Clegg a kicking” sentiment, the usual tabloid press scaremongering and some basic campaigning mistakes from the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign.

My personal view is that when you start with a compromise that everyone is being forced to accept, you lose any kind of campaigning fervour within a movement.

The “all-out” nature of Scotland’s independence referendum provoked a level of engagement because there was a very clear consequence to the vote. For many, the Alternative Vote system was so mild a reform, it did not stir them to action – and even provoked some reformers like Lord Owen to start another campaign “No to AV, Yes to PR”. (For the uninitiated, a good summary of the different voting systems can be found here).

In a similar way to Bristol’s mayoral referendum debate, the middle ground position of the Labour Party – allowing its MPs/councillors to side with either the Yes or No camps – was this small reform’s undoing and an opportunity lost.

A stronger commitment to the principle of electoral reform from Labour – Ed Miliband supported it, but wouldn’t risk a huge internal debate on democratic reform so early in his leadership – would undoubtedly have prevented such a landslide victory for the status quo.

Many No voters say that the AV referendum put the issue to bed for a generation or more (and to Yes voters’ annoyance, these same people insist it was a referendum on proportional representation). For Yes campaigners, the conversation shifted to other reforms that could have big impacts, like an elected Lords and votes at 16.

The Electoral Reform Society – the standard-bearer for this cause since being founded as the Proportional Representation Society in 1884 – have diversified their offer to become one of the key campaigning organisations in Westminster on a range of democratic issues.

They have been nimble to react to the usual mid-term mood swings on democratic matters and have rebuilt the grass roots membership’s activism after a difficult experience with the AV referendum.

On the key matter at hand, the ERS have convincingly made the case for local electoral reform to both Labour and Conservative supporters, arguing that changing the local voting system to STV would give both camps footholds in areas of the country where they have never elected more than a few councillors.

With PR, Labour representation in places like Surrey, and Conservative representation in places like Greater Manchester, could become realities.

Enlightened self-interest is clearly the way to go in discussions with the big two. For Labour in particular, there must be at least a flickering of doubt about their stoic insistence on first past the post for the simple reason that it really screwed them this time.

The fear for them is that in areas of the country where they have arguably lost touch with their working class base, the UKIP threat is palpable and a cause to hold out.

In the south of England, however, they must know that to make any kind of dent in Tory domination for a decade, something drastic has to happen in terms of policy before potential Coalition negotiations in 2020.

Privately, for many Labour supporters this may still look decidedly rose-tinted – what hope of overturning enough Tory seats to be the largest party in 2020?

Publicly, a strong progressive coalition – built with the burgeoning SNP, the rebuilding Lib Dems, and the surging Greens – and an early commitment to electoral reform would do much to set the groundwork and improve relations should 2020 bring fresh coalition negotiations and a chance to oust the Tories from power.

When Scotland introduced STV for local government in 2007 the number of voters whose first choice candidate was elected rose from 52.3 per cent to 74.0 per cent. This represents a hugely increased return on investment for voters and would lead to the re-enchantment of the electoral system for a large number of people who currently feel (and in some cases know, given the safety of their councillor or MP’s seat) it isn’t worth voting with their heart. 

It would need to be matched with a solid on-the-ground communications campaign from all parties – political and non-aligned.

However, as the democratic reform movement has argued for over 130 years, it would give the British people a democracy that they can influence and shape to a far greater degree.

On the local level, proportional representation would mean that areas of Bristol that have only ever been the preserve of the largest two parties are genuinely contested around political, social and community-focused campaigns and ideas.

The Single Transferable Vote would allow a greater range of choices for residents, knowing that their vote will have an influence on the outcome.

It would engage large numbers of people who are put off by party politics and it would accentuate individual councillors’ strengths or weaknesses to a far greater extent.

Only the most tribal and self-interested of politicians would not want this to happen.