I’m a Labour member foremost, but a democrat first

By Robert Peaty

On 5th May the country will be going to the polls. Scotland will be voting for their parliament. Wales and Northern Ireland will be electing their assemblies and England their local councils. In addition, the entire nation will be voting on a national referendum, the first since 1975. We the British people are being asked if we want to adopt the Alternative Vote.

Labour No2AV claims that under Alternative Vote the only vote that counts will be Nick Clegg’s. They worry that a change to AV would give the Liberal Democrats more power. This would only be the case if people actually voted for them. With their current record it is questionable that this would happen. Even if they did then that’s democracy.

The fact is, at the moment, over two thirds of MPs are elected with the support of less than 50% of their constituents. In other words the majority of people do not vote for their MPs. Under AV all MPs will have to have majority support of their constituents. This will be ensured by taking second preferences into account, and further preferences if necessary. Many complain that this will disadvantage Labour as it gives smaller parties ‘more votes’. This is a completely false argument. If Labour is one of the contenders for the seat, Labour votes will be counted alongside and equal to the second preferences of the votes of the smaller parties. AV means that everybody has a say and ensures Labour reach out to voters of other parties. Something we need to do if we want to have a lasting consensus.

The back of our membership cards tell us that the Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. We must never forget that we are all democrats. We fought to give workers representation; we fought to give women the vote. The next fight is to make our votes count beyond a handful of voters in marginal constituencies. I urge you to get behind the campaign for fairer votes.

To get involved in the campaign for a Yes vote visit yestofairervotes.org