Andy Burnham calls for Labour to adopt proportional representation in radical reform of Britain

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has called for the Labour Party to adopt proportional representation for MPs to be elected, as part of a ‘radical rewiring of Britain’.

He says reform will stop parties voted for by a minority gaining complete power at Westminster.

Labour has proposed plans to change how UK democracy currently works, which includes replacing the House of Lords with a directly elected senate for the UK’s nations and regions.

In a speech at the Making Britain Work For Scotland rally, in Edinburgh on Thursday evening, the mayor’s proposals were supported by the first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford.

As reported in The Guardian, Burnham said ensuring that MPs were elected using a system that accurately reflected voters’ choices would prevent a party only chosen by a minority of voters having complete power at Westminster.

He said: “I think we need to change the House of Commons as well, I think we need voting reform.

“I don’t believe all people in all places will be equally represented in Westminster until every vote matters.”

He added that Labour’s plans to devolve even greater power to the English regions would allow power to flow from Westminster. 

This would make way for a ‘place-first approach’ — where city regions had the authority to work collaboratively, diluting the power of a centralised party machine in London

Burnham was also supported by Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin — who noted she was the only woman among England’s 10 metropolitan mayors. 

She said: “We can and we must go further. Power cannot be hoarded in government departments, whether that’s Westminster or Holyrood.

“Decisions that impact our everyday lives – education, social care, the economy – are being made in the heartland of privilege by people absolutely out of touch with ordinary folk.”

Labour’s proposals to introduce new legally underpinned powers for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, and the English regions, are expected to be a major feature in Keir Starmer’s upcoming general election campaign.

This comes after Gordon Brown held a rally in Edinburgh with his wife, Sarah Brown, under the guidance of Brown’s Our Scottish Future thinktank. 

Here, for the first time, Labour leaders from across England, Wales and Scotland addressed a constitutional reform rally, highlighting the pressure Starmer will face to put Brown’s proposals into practice.

The former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie was in the audience and is a member of Brown’s thinktank, suggesting the two parties may cooperate after the next election.

However, Burnham’s stand for electoral reform goes further than Labour’s plans. 

Abandoning the current first past the post voting is believed to be opposed by most Labour MPs in the Commons. This is partly because many would face losing their seats and also because it would dilute the elected party’s power.

However supporters of the reform argue that every other legislature in the UK, at Holyrood, the Senedd in Cardiff and Stormont in Northern Ireland, use proportional systems, as do council elections in devolved nations. It is expected a new second chamber at Westminster would also use region-based proportional voting.