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It’s a near iron law that the beneficiaries of any system are usually the last to be persuaded that it needs to be reformed. So when Andy Burnham promises that we’ll get some version of proportional representation (PR), shaped by a new National Commission on Electoral Reform, after the next election, he still faces an uphill struggle convincing his fellow MPs that it’s a wise move.
It’s not hard to see why PR has strategic appeal for him. In a new seven-party era it could consolidate a progressive majority and minimise the risk of Reform or the Conservatives winning with the support of barely a quarter of electors. But a fair proportion of Labour MPs are bound to feel like turkeys who wouldn’t vote for Christmas. This is the Catch-22 of any kind of democratic reform: that it has to be agreed by the very people who’ve benefited from the old system.
And some may argue that a shift to PR is hardly an adequate response to the problems of democracy. In the many countries that use it, pretty much all of the pathologies that afflict the UK also show up.
