Laura Parker: ‘There is zero evidence PR advantages the far-right’

There are many headlines coming out of this year’s Labour Party conference. One of the most significant of them is Andy Burnham announcing a national commission on electoral reform and a commitment that Labour will go into the next election with a pledge to change the voting system.

This is a substantial shift in Labour’s position on the constitutional issue, and supporters of electoral reform have no doubts about its significance.

At the Labour Party’s conference, LFF spoke to Laura Parker of Labour for a New Democracy – a group which has been pushing for the Labour Party to support a proportional voting system.

The interview was conducted before Burnham’s big conference speech in which he made the announcement on electoral reform.

Speaking to LFF, Parker said several things which proved prescient. She said that she was “very” confident that the next Labour general election manifesto would include a commitment to proportional representation.

Asked why she had this level of confidence, Parker told LFF: “He’s a converter. This is a guy who’s been coming to our meetings for the last five or six years consistently. But he’s been persuaded for a decade or so.”

She went on to add that she thought Burnham had the ‘zeal of the convert’ and a personal commitment to electoral reform that was ‘really strong’.

This, Parker argued, has come from his time outside Westminster as mayor of Greater Manchester. “I think his time outside Westminster genuinely means he wants to approach politics in a different way”, she said.

Burnham cynics often point to the fact that he has at various times taken strong stances in support of particularly causes and later rowed back on them. He has previously, for example, flirted with rent controls or a Universal Basic Income. But since entering Number 10, his government has made clear it isn’t interested in the former and been silent on the latter.

Why would PR be any different?

Parker told LFF: “I understand the jury’s out for many people. And yes, he’s got to prove himself”, before adding “Proof is in the pudding and he has said that he wants to do it. So now we need in the coming weeks and months to see some action, [some] next steps.”

Finally, LFF discussed with Parker the relationship between proportional voting systems and the far-right.

Parker begins by saying that her opposition to Reform and the far-right is unrelated to her support for proportional representation, telling LFF: “We have never argued from a position of either party advantage for the Labour Party or to stop party X. We don’t want anyone to have a majority of power on a minority of the vote, full stop. Now, clearly as a socialist I’m particularly not keen for it to be Reform. But genuinely if you speak to the vast majority of supporters of our campaign, this isn’t a ‘Get PR, Stop Reform’ campaign.”

Parker nevertheless went on to argue that introducing a proportional voting system would not be to the advantage of the far-right, and in fact it would help reduce their influence, telling LFF “there is zero evidence that PR advantages the far right, zero evidence” and that “As a general rule, it ameliorates the far-right because they have to find coalition partners. Most of the time, people don’t want to be in coalition with them.”

She went on to add: “If you look at all the countries where they’ve had the far-right in Europe, and yes, in some cases as the leading party of the coalition, they’ve had to be the leading party of the coalition and someone’s put the brakes on them.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: oatsy40 – Creative Commons