New Clause. — (Single transferable vote.)

Part of Orders of the Day — Representation of the People Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 23 January 1945.

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Photo of Sir Geoffrey Mander Sir Geoffrey Mander , Wolverhampton East 12:00, 23 January 1945

I think it would be more convenient, Mr. Speaker, if we did take them all together. This is a very modest proposal indeed. Some of us entertained high hopes of what might result from the Speaker's Conference, but we know now that nothing came of it, so far as Proportional Representation was concerned. I venture to think that the Conservative Party and the Labour Party were unwise in the decision they came to, as were the Liberal Party in 1918 when the matter rested in their hands. However, that is past history, and it is not possible now to reconsider it. I hope that the Government will give sympathetic consideration to what is surely a most modest and reasonable suggestion. It is nothing more than to allow local aulhorities, if they so wish, after giving one month's notice to each member, and by a three-fifths majority, to try the experiment of carrying out their elections by a system of Proportional Representation. If, after a trial of six years, they are unhappy about it, it would be open to them to rescind it and to go back to the present system.

There is no point whatever in describing the system of Proportional Representation; we all take that for granted. The mechanics of it, are, I think, well understood, and I do not want to give a number of examples. I should however like to be permitted to give just two, in the sphere of local government, to indicate the sort of difficulties that arise. In 1937, for instance, at the annual one-third rotation election in one large Lancashire city, the Conservatives secured 25 seats with a total vote of 98,000, whereas Labour obtained six seats with a total of 64,000. In the same year, in a Yorkshire city, Labour secured 11 seats with 37,000 votes, an actual minority of the votes, whereas the Progressives, with 39,000 votes, secured only five seats. One could give any number of such examples in the Parliamentary sphere and in the local govern- ment sphere. To many of us, it does not seem really consistent with truly democratic methods and a proper system of representation that people so unrepresentative of the popular will should be elected.

I am not asking for a reversal of the system; I am only asking that facilities should be granted to those local authorities who agree to make the experiment, and that they should be permitted to do it. What precedents are there in other countries? One could give precedents, as regards local government—that is all I am talking about now—in Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Holland. But let us confine ourselves to the British Empire which knows how to do these things as well as or, I think, better than any other country in the world. In the Cape of Good Hope Province of South Africa, and New Zealand, local councils have optional powers, such as proposed by this Clause, to apply the single transfer of votes to their elections. The same applies to Canada, in the Provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the city of Winnipeg in Manitoba. I think, therefore, we can say that this is not a novelty so far as British people are concerned. They are using the system, and they are finding it sound and useful in all parts of the British Empire.

I ask the House to bear in mind that we are not asking for anything on a Parliamentary basis. That has been dropped for the time being. We are not asking that all local elections should be on this basis. We are merely asking that an experiment should be permitted in the cases I have referred to. Surely, it is the very essence of British development, by trial and error, to try a thing and see whether it is an improvement on something which has gone before. If it is not an improvement, then we can go back. No one could claim that the last word has been said on the matter of representation of the people by the British system as it exists at this moment. It may be that experiment will show that Proportional Representation is not an effective method, that the country does not like it and the local councils do not like it. In that case, no harm will have been done, and we will be precisely where we were.

I hope, of course, that as the result of such experiment as might take place under this Clause, that the country will be gradually converted to the view that this is the more sensible system, if we want the House of Commons and the local councils to be a real mirror of the people and to represent their will in correct proportion to the numbers of the voters and not as the result of a conflict of parties giving hugely exaggerated representation to one party and very much diminished representation to another, as at the present time. It may be that many hon. Members here hope that as a result of this experiment the people will come to say that Proportional Representation is an unsatisfactory system, and that the present one is better. I am not pre-judging that; I am willing to leave that to the result of experience, but what I would ask, and ask most seriously, of the Government, is that, having rejected all the larger things, many of us hope they will look favourably upon this modest and reasonable suggestion that is now being put before the House.