Electoral reform: Brown and Cameron trade blows
By Ian Dunt and Alex Stevenson
The prime minister is trying to reform the electoral system to keep himself in power, David Cameron has said.
The Tory leader made the accusation as Gordon Brown presented parliament with a comprehensive package of reforms, triggered by the scandal over MPs’ expenses.
The package presented to parliament today called for a debate on a new electoral system, along with a host of other measures.
During prime minister’s question, Mr Cameron asked why the PM had suddenly become a convert to electoral reform, just when it appeared he would lose the next election.
“Why has he suddenly discovered an interest in the electoral system?” he asked.
“Finally, after many, many weeks, a question on policy,” Mr Brown responded.
Mr Cameron later added Mr Brown, “a man with no democratic legitimacy”, was “now considering trying to fix the rules of the election”.
He described the national democratic renewal council as sounding “like something out of North Korea” and being “just a bunch of ministers talking to themselves”.
The prime minister told Mr Cameron he “had no plans” for a referendum on a new system before the next general election, but he would not promise him there would not be one.
If confirmed, that commitment would essentially put the issue in the long grass, because the Conservatives are implacably opposed to reform and would ignore the issue if they win the next election, as is universally expected.
Mr Cameron indicated he favoured citizens’ initiatives and the abolition of “regional quangos”, but he pressed the primacy of representative democracy.
“The most powerful thing in politics. is the ballot box, particularly when it leads to the removal van,” he added.
The Liberal Democrats welcomed the calls for reform, saying the current first-past-the-post system was a “cosy Westminster stitch-up”.
Party leader Nick Clegg also voiced doubts about Mr Brown’s “death-bed conversion” to electoral reform.
There was anger from some democratisation groups who have grown exasperated by Mr Brown’s announcements on reform, but seen little concrete action.
Deputy director of Unlock Democracy, Alexandra Runswick, said: “This afternoon, Gordon Brown was reduced to performing the role of a bingo caller, listing a whole series of potential reforms yet offering almost nothing of substance.
“It is a crushing indictment of Gordon Brown’s premiership that we have made almost no progress on democratic renewal since the Commons statement on the subject he made at the start of his tenure two years ago.”
Other proposals in Mr Brown’s package included reform of the selection process for select committee members, the potential for further devolved powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and a new system to monitor parliament and the behaviour of MPs.
