Andy Burnham says "It would be a recipe for chaos and confusion if Labour candidates were also supporting AV in their literature." He's wrong - the party should campaign for AV.
Late on Friday afternoon, the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour revealed that Labour would not be campaigning in the alternative vote referendum. Aside from John Rentoul’s Independent on Sunday column, which lamented the death of electoral reform, the story sunk without a trace. The media may not be interested but progressives should urge Labour’s leadership to have a rethink.
The Guardian quoted Labour’s election coordinator, Andy Burnham, arguing that:
“The referendum should have been held on its own day, when the yes and no campaigns could have argued it out. Our sole priority has to be, and will be, winning in Scotland, and Wales, and doing well in the local elections.
“It would be a recipe for chaos and confusion if Labour candidates were also supporting AV in their literature. The election and referendum campaigns have to be separate and distinct.
Burnham’s pronouncement is counter-productive for five reasons.
First, it belies the spirit of Labour’s existing policy at a time when the party is (rightly) criticising others for veering from their previous objectives. Labour’s manifesto said:
“To ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election, we will hold a referendum on introducing the Alternative Vote for elections to the House of Commons.”
During the leadership campaign Ed Miliband went further and told Left Foot Forward, “I support AV for the House of Commons and will campaign for it.” Little wonder, when the system worked so well for him during his own leadership contest. Reversing this position now will look to political and constitutional reformers like rank opportunism.
Second, given the likelihood of future hung parliaments (perhaps even next year in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly), Labour has to show that it can work across party lines on areas of shared interest. Labour’s new leader recognised this during his conference speech so it seems odd that he should abandon this position at the first significant opportunity presented to him to work with Lib Dem colleagues.
Third, there is no obvious reason why Labour can’t, in LBJ’s words, “walk and chew gum”. Why shouldn’t Labour’s candidates support AV in their literature? After all, there is no additional cost to including a line in a direct mail or leaflet that is already paid for. While the party can be excused for prioritising victory in Scotland and Wales, campaigning for AV need not be a huge drain on resources or time.
Fourth, from a narrow party interest perspective, AV is in the Labour party’s interest. A projection by the Electoral Reform Society suggested that Labour would have won four more seats in 2010 under AV while the Tories would have won 26 fewer seats. Analysis from the BBC suggests that Labour would have won more seats in 1997, 2001, and 2005 (although it would have had fewer seats in 1983, 1987 and 1992).
Finally, those hoping that the defeat of the AV referendum will deliver a hammer blow to the Coalition are misguided. Nick Clegg has already told activists that he will remain Deputy Prime Minister regardless of the result. Clegg, as has often been observed, looks comfortable with his Conservative colleagues. Hours spent sitting around the Cabinet table adjudicating on the cuts has left a strong bond between the Lib Dem leader, Danny Alexander, George Osborne and David Cameron. A “little local difficulty” in May’s elections will hardly puncture those relationships.
NB: I look forward to Tom Harris’ fisking!
121 Responses to “Labour should campaign on AV”
Anon E Mouse
Chris – Thanks sweetheart… I almost hate to use EVIDENCE to prove you are wrong. Yet again. Ok then.
merthyr_bill said: “Ed M is rubbish so far and his background – a property millionaire champagne socialist from Primrose Hill – doesn’t strike a chord with me. That and his treacherous father spending his whole life attempting to enslave through Marxism the people who had offered him sanctuary frankly disgusts me”
1. Ed Miliband is rubbish so far. That’s Bill’s opinion so that’s true.
2. Property property millionaire champagne socialist is also true.
3. Primrose Hill is true.
4. His Marxist (Jewish I don’t care about) father was given sanctuary by us.
5. He preached Marxism in the UK and considered Tony Benn too right wing at one point.
So once again you have smeared and ranted and lied about someone in a public forum and the subject of Ed Miliband you might want to check how he actually became a property millionaire and his tax status. Who owns the house he lives in Chris?
As for your last paragraph you are living on a different planet. Have you not realised Labour lost the election Chris?
For the reasons I gave previously: The Tories are closer to the Lib Dems than Labour ever were and before all you Labour zombies start stirring in the woods, just remember ID Cards, control orders and the hundred and one other things Labour support involving the state crushing the rights of the individual.
I won’t call you a zombie Chris since it appears that New Labour Lick Spittles like yourself are alive and well but unlike you I am too polite to be rude in a public forum….
(Have you never wondered why you alone make the remarks you do Chris?)
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
LCERnews
https://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/11/labour-should-campaign-on-av/
Daniel Roy Harris
RT @wdjstraw: 5 reasons why Labour should campaign on AV (as @Ed_Miliband said they would) http://bit.ly/c7psx3
william
OK, boys, calm down ,the task is to win the next election.I put £50 on Andy Burnham, purely because I thought the party would vote against everybody associated with GB.I had not worked out that the leadership was in the gift of the public sector unions, whose own elections have been copied by Burma. When we have lost an election or two,I think Merthyr Bill will seem to have been right all along.
Anon E Mouse
William – (The above is an ongoing theme)
I also agree with merthyr_bill but think that Miliband, irrespective of how he got the leadership, is doing ok considering.
The fact is he really has nothing to do for 5 years. I think that people hoping the coalition will fall apart are bonkers – the only tribalists exist in the Labour Party.
I don’t think anyone seriously thinks Labour can win the next election anyway – too much baggage but what I do find amazing is that the very policies that the electorate rejected are still being advanced here on LFF.
Finally elections in Burma couldn’t be as corrupt as the public sector unions surely?