Local Government Elections (Proportional Representation) (Hansard, 15 February 1984)

§ Mr. Malcolm Bruce (Gordon)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to establish an electoral system for all local government elections in the United Kingdom based on proportional representation; and for connected purposes.

Many people, both inside and outside the House, will recognise that this measure is particularly well timed in the light of the problems currently facing local government. Local authorities operate under Acts of Parliament and they frequently act as agents of central Government. I believe that most hon. Members would agree that as a general rule it is desirable that decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the people affected by them. It is also recognised that local people are the best qualified to appreciate the problems and opportunities in their areas and to take decisions accordingly.

The Bill aims to ensure that local authorities are elected in a way that makes them truly representative of their local communities. A number of benefits will accrue —[Laughter.] Hon. Members may laugh, but I believe that being representative of one's community is a worthy objective.

At present, many people feel that their local councils do not properly represent them. I draw the attention of the House to the way in which this was highlighted by the hon. Member for Brent, North (Dr. Boyson), the Minister for Social Security, who, when referring to parental choice in a debate on appeals procedure under the Education Act 1980, said: There is a similar disappointment for the people who voted Conservative in Stockport, North and those who voted Labour in my constituency. They might ask what the point is in voting. Whatever people may think of the person who represents them, it is a funny system. People vote and then find out that they are not represented."—[Official Report, 20 December 1982; Vol. 34, c. 802.] I and many hon. Members understand that in their present frustration the Government are finding a relatively small number of local authorities in direct confrontation with them, and as a result the Government are taking a number of measures to increase central control over local authorities. Clearly those measures are controversial in the House—a controversy that cuts across party divisions.

I single out two authorities that are perhaps the highest in political awareness as demonstrating the conflict with the Government, Liverpool and the GLC, which are both Labour-controlled. In neither case did the Labour party secure an overall majority of the votes, yet it has a substantial majority of the seats. My Bill would help to moderate that occurrence, and would make the Government's proposed legislation to abolish those authorities unnecessary.

The Bill would not prevent progressive and radical councils from being elected, but it would ensure that the party seeking to take control needed to win a wide base of support within the community. The Bill would deal with that by ensuring that local councils were elected in a truly representative way and that militant minorities could not take control against the expressed wishes of the majority of voters.

I also believe that such a measure would have additional benefits, because as every vote would count it is likely to 268 increase the turnout at local elections, which most people regard as lamentably low. It might also have the unexpected benefit in some cases of securing the return of independent candidates who are currently being squeezed out by party politics. Another advantage would be that it would enable systems of proportional representation to be tested in practice in the mainland of Great Britain. By assessing different systems politicians, be they favourably or disfavourably inclined, and the public would be able to see how PR works and what effect it has. As many councils already have multi-member wards, these are not unknown phenomena.

§ Mr. Bruce

They have them in England and Wales, and this is a United Kingdom Bill. Given that multimember constituencies exist, it would not be difficult to introduce this system without substantially disrupting the existing method of drawing boundaries. There are relatively few councils in which the ruling party has a majority of votes. There cannot be straightforward transfers of votes under one system to the other because the system itself will change voting habits.

As I have already said, if the Bill is enacted it will increase the turnout at local elections. In the light of that, the Government would not find themselves in their present position in which many councils are under the control, on a minority vote, of the opposition and so in conflict with central Government. The overall conclusion would be a constructive relationship between central Government and local government in which representative councils would be responsible to their own communities and could be trusted to act on behalf of the communities. Instead of having to take powers away from local authorities, the Government could give them more power and know that that power would be responsibly handled.

Although the Bill does not seek to specify any particular system of proportional representation, I believe that it would enable different systems to be properly tested. Those who are sceptical—and there might be one or two of them in the Chamber—should support the Bill because it would enable them to see in practice how the proposals would work. The Bill is aimed exclusively at local government, and it would not prejudice systems that apply at any other level of government. The Irish people, in both north and south, have been able to cope quite happily with proportional representation in recent years. That is an extremely good example because it has been argued that the British people do not understand the system. It should be realised that the Irish can manage it quite well.

The case for introducing proportional representation for local government stands on its own merits, specifically in the present context where local authorities are having powers taken away from them because a minority of councils have abused their power and sought to confront the Government. If there were proper representation in local communities, local authorities would be able to work as true representatives in co-operation with Government and ensure truly democratic representative local authorities that would be able to take more power rather than less and to be trusted with it.

I believe that the Bill will and should commend itself to the House. It has support from all parties within the 269 House and many recognise that, although there are differences about the merit of changing the electoral system, local government is the only logical and sensible place to introduce change and that the present state of local government is such that now is the right time to introduce a measure of this sort. I hope that the House will give me leave to introduce the Bill and ensure that democratic local government is truly democratic and truly local in future.