HC Deb 09 March 1998 vol 308 cc17-8W
Angela Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the electoral system for elections to the European Parliament. [33900]

Mr. Straw

It is fundamentally important that any voting system is appropriate to the nature and functions of the body which is being elected. On Second Reading of the European Parliamentary Elections Bill on 25 November 1997,Official Report, column 803, I stated that the Government believed the regional list system set out in the Bill to be the most appropriate system for elections to the European Parliament in Great Britain. Under such a system, an elector may cast his vote in one of two ways—for a party list or for an independent candidate. However, having received separate representations from the Liberal Democrats and Charter 88, I undertook to listen to the arguments for adopting a system similar to that which operates in Belgium, whereby an elector may cast his vote in one of three ways—for a party list, for an individual candidate on a party list or for an independent candidate.

I have studied the matter very carefully. As part of the consideration process, I commissioned a study of voter opinion by National Opinion Polls, the results of which have been placed in the Library.

I have concluded that there is no advantage in adopting in Great Britain a system of the kind used in Belgium.

The type of system which is in use in Belgium has some superficial attractions. An elector may express a preference for a particular candidate, rather than simply endorsing all the candidates on a party's list. However, the system suffers from a fundamental and incurable weakness, in that voters' preferences for individual candidates are not necessarily translated into electoral success.

I am placing in the Library some numerical examples to illustrate how the system works in practice. These indicate that even where votes for individual candidates amount to as much as 40 per cent. of a party's total vote, those candidates receiving the fewest individual votes can be elected while those receiving the most are not. I believe that such an outcome could lead to substantial disillusionment among the electorate following an election.

The overwhelming majority of citizens in the European Union elect their Members of the European Parliament using a system of the kind for which the Bill currently provides. This seems to me to be the most suitable one to use in a situation where (as the National Opinion Poll study demonstrated) most people vote for parties rather than individuals.

The Government are committed to fulfilling their manifesto promise to put in place a proportional voting system for elections to the European Parliament. I remain convinced that the simple regional list system in the European Parliamentary Elections Bill is the most appropriate way of delivering that commitment.