The Bristol East MP supports examining how Britain elects MPs, while saying she has yet to be persuaded by any particular alternative to first past the post.
Labour MP Kerry McCarthy has welcomed the government’s new commission on electoral reform while cautioning that the case for a specific replacement for first past the post still needs to be made.
The Bristol East MP said she supports electoral reform in principle but has not settled on which voting system would work best for Westminster. Different forms of proportional representation each have strengths and weaknesses, she argued in comments shared through her website’s social feed this week.
McCarthy welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s decision to establish a National Commission on Electoral Reform, saying it would allow a more considered debate about which system best suits the country.
Burnham announced the commission at Labour’s conference last month and said the party would go into the next general election with a manifesto commitment to change the voting system. His announcement settled Labour’s intention to pursue reform, while leaving the design of any replacement for the commission to examine.
McCarthy’s comments highlight a question the commission will have to answer: how a new system could make votes count more equally while retaining effective representation for local communities.
She also welcomed Burnham’s wider emphasis on moving power away from Westminster and towards councils and mayors. For McCarthy, the discussion about electoral reform sits within that broader effort to make government more accountable to the people it serves.
