 John Gough, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Barrow & Furness commented on the offer by Gordon Brown to have a referendum on voting reform said:
“Gordon Brown’s proposal for electoral reform is a deceitful gimmick and designed to shore up his falling support and nothing more. It is only because he thinks he will lose, that now, after 13 years, he has suddenly discovered an appetite for electoral reform. Can we really trust his promises on reform when he has stuffed his cabinet full of unelected peers and broke his promise to give us a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty
I remember the 1980’s with the rise of the SDP who called for proportional representation. I opposed it then and I oppose it now because it makes it harder to throw out a Government or local MP, it relies on deals being struck behind closed doors to keep coalitions together, it gives undue influence to smaller parties who become the king makers in any coalition, and it destroys the link between MP and constituent. I stood by the present system through the days when Labour was winning, because this was the democratic will of the country, now Labour should not try to change the rules just because they think they will lose.
Our first past the post system may not be perfect, but it gives a direct link between an MP and their constituents. I know that I am responsible to, and serve, the people of Barrow and Furness. It is up to them, and no one else, to vote me in or kick me out.
We don’t need a more complicated and less transparent voting system, we need a Government who will truly devolve power, end the over representation of some parts of our Country in Parliament and re draw the boundaries so we have less MPs who represent broadly the same number of voters. Only a freshly elected Conservative Government can do this.”
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