Under contentious “coalition of chaos” proposals that are anticipated to get support from Labour in fall, the Tories might be forced out of power for a generation.
Conservative election strategists have expressed concerns that Sir Keir Starmer’s party would ultimately accept plans to abolish Britain’s venerable first-past-the-post voting system and replace it with “coalition-friendly” proportional representation next month (PR).
This comes after two of Labour’s influential trade union allies decided to support electoral reform.
In a weak coalition government, Sir Keir’s prospective Liberal Democrat allies, Tory MPs warned last night that the action would be a sop to them.
According to one, Richard Holden, “Sir Keir Starmer and Labour’s union paymasters both realise that Labour could never gain a majority under his lacklustre leadership.”
That is why they are urging cooperation with the Lib Dems to alter the rules so that Labour may enter via the back door with support from the Lib Dems and SNP.
“Sir Keir Starmer knows Labour could never gain a majority under his lacklustre leadership, and Labour’s union paymasters know it too,” claimed Tory MP Richard Holden.
“The people would prefer Labour and the unions focussed on avoiding strike action that cripples our public services,” he said. “Rather than attempting to meddle with Britain’s democratic system.”
Nevertheless, Labour supporters who are lobbying for their party’s annual conference to vote to include a transition to proportional representation in Labour’s next General Election programme will feel more confident as a result of Tory concerns about PR.
The action comes after a similar proposal from the last conference, which was only defeated by union opposition.
However, less than a month later, Unite, the largest donor to Labour, decided to alter course and support PR in the Westminster elections for the first time in the union’s history.
Then, in June, another significant union, Unison, voted in favour of PR on the grounds that its members were tired of Westminster’s “distorting FPTP voting system.”
Since then, Greater Manchester’s Labour mayor Andy Burnham, who is a candidate to succeed Sir Keir, has urged the party to support the contentious vote change.
Sir Keir was urged to “seize the opportunity” by Mr. Burnham, who denied advocating for any kind of electoral alliance with other parties.
The Labour leader himself said earlier this summer that he understood the strong feelings that many party members had towards PR, not least since he joined the party in East Surrey, where “every time you vote Labour, the vote doesn’t actually count for anything.”
However, he emphasised the significance of the “connection to a constituency” under the existing system, where each MP is chosen by and accountable to people in a particular region.
The Labour For A New Democracy campaign is calling for the next Labour administration to abolish the “rotten electoral system which continuously transfers power to a Conservative minority” in a draught resolution for the conference that will be presented at the end of the month.
Conservative opponents counter that this would merely result in weak coalition administrations where political parties would bargain over who to share power with after each election.
Labour insiders emphasised that Sir Keir would not be bound by a party conference decision about what was included in Labour’s next manifesto.