• WESTMINSTER North Constituency Labour Party has overwhelmingly passed a resolution in support of proportional representation.

It was noted that the city council has a large Conservative majority, despite a small difference in vote shares between the two parties, leaving many Labour voters unrepresented.

First-past-the-post forces Labour to focus on marginal constituencies, meaning that we neglect voters and party activists across vast areas of the country represented by safe seats. We cannot be a party “for the many” when we focus on a minority of voters.

Opinion polls in the last year have projected Labour getting more votes but fewer seats than the Conservatives if replicated at a general election.

Our CLP therefore calls upon the Labour Party to reject first-past-the-post, the voting system currently used for general and council elections, and to support the introduction of a form of PR in which all votes count equally and seats match votes.

We also call upon the justice and home affairs policy commission of the national policy forum – or the relevant body following the democracy review – to consult the party membership about their views on the above proposal in the next cycle of policy documents.

In fact, no political parties other than the Conservatives or Labour have ever won seats on Westminster City Council.

The Conservatives have 68.3 per cent of seats (41) on 42.8 per cent of the vote, while Labour have 31.7 per cent of seats (19) on 41.1 per cent of the vote.

At general elections, Westminster North was seen as a “marginal” seat in the past, which means it received more focus and resources compared with “safe” seats.

Cities of London & Westminster is now a marginal seat: thus it will be the subject of concentrated activity and campaign spending.

MP Mark Field was re-elected in 2017 with a minority of the vote (46.6 per cent), yet under our system, he represents the majority of voters.

It is a similar situation for West Central on the London Assembly, which covers Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, and Hammersmith & Fulham. Tony Devenish was re-elected in 2016 with 44.2 per cent of the vote.

Of course, the city council has been ruthlessly gerrymandered to manipulate the balance of power in the past; and it is hard not to be cynical about the large number of luxury property developments now being built across the borough, which have, presumably, all been approved by the ruling Conservative administration.

The demographics of who will inhabit these developments are especially favourable to the Conservative vote. Our electoral system allows this to happen.

I am pleased that a move to a system of PR (forms of which maintain a constituency link) is supported by Westminster North CLP, including our MP Karen Buck.

Cities of London & Westminster CLP have also passed a similar motion. In the current climate, in which no party is polling above 30 per cent, a voting system which accurately reflects people’s views is urgently required.

For the first time, we have also seen opinion polling in which five parties are on double-digit figures. Brexit has starkly exposed the way that first-past-the-post disfranchises voters, leading to the sorry mess we are now in as a country.

THEO MORGAN
Westminster North CLP