That means learning the lessons from their ruinous coalition with the Tories – when the party helped kill faith in the democratic process by abandoning their pledge to scrap tuition fees, and accepted a referendum on the alternative vote, a bad electoral system that can deliver even less proportionate results than our own. Instead, the Liberal Democrats and other parties should demand a referendum on abandoning first past the post. Though he led Labour members to believe he supported voter reform when he stood for leader, he has – true to form – U-turned. There is no prospect of this happening if Starmer secures a majority. The other is to scrap an outdated electoral system in favour of proportional representation.
In a hung parliament, there will be a majority for franchise expansion and perhaps automatic voter registration. The Tories know that restricting the right to vote helps them, while expanding democracy hurts them. Even Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted that the Tories’ compulsory voter ID policy – a “solution” in search of the near non-existent problem of voter fraud – was an attempt to gerrymander elections.
It is striking that the British right is currently accusing Labour of seeking to “rig” elections by giving the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds, and granting it to EU citizens who are long-time British residents. The best bet is a hung parliament that finally frees British democracy.
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