Former UK minister slams Senedd's new voting system for promoting 'party patronage'

Martin Shipton

The voting system that will be used to elect all Members of the Senedd next year disowns democracy and instead promotes party patronage, a former UK Government minister has claimed.

Brian Wilson, who held several posts in Tony Blair’s government, criticised the d’Hondt system, under which all 96 members of the expanded Senedd will win their seats.

Mr Wilson, a former journalist who was one of the first students on the renowned postgraduate training course at Cardiff University, focussed his comments on the Scottish Parliament, where 56 of the 129 MSPs are voted in via regional lists drawn up by their own parties.

The same system has been used to elect regional members of the Senedd, but from next May’s election will form the basis of the “closed list” electoral arrangements under which all MSs will win their seats.

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'Democratic principle'

Writing in The Scotsman newspaper, Mr Wilson, who was the Labour MP for Cunninghame North from 1987 to 2005, said: “The D’Hondt system, as it is grandly known, disowns the historic democratic principle that voters are selecting a candidate, rather than a party. It also creates two classes of MSP: those directly elected by constituents and others who are there as beneficiaries of party patronage.

“It is the principle that is wrong. If, as is quite possible, we have a finely balanced parliament next May, the calculations of a few individuals whom nobody has ever voted for could determine the balance of power, for reasons entirely of self-interest.

“There is a straightforward solution, which retains the principle of proportional representation. Curiously, it is one Holyrood itself adopted when legislating for local government reform in 2006 when it established a voting system based on multi-member wards [The Single Transferable Vote, under which voters list their chosen candidates in order of preference] . If it is good enough for councils, why not for Holyrood?

“Once elected, all MSPs would be equal, with actual constituents as opposed to the fiction of claiming everyone in vast regions as their electoral flocks. The late Margo Macdonald was the only independent ever elected to Holyrood as a regional MSP — and that is a very high bar to set.

“On the other hand, the ‘list’ is a mechanism for party hierarchies to get rid of MSPs who have proved too competent or interesting for their own good. Under Alex Salmond, the SNP disposed of Andrew Wilson, who made the cardinal error of speaking truth about Scotland’s economic realities.

“The Greens ousted the valuable but non-conforming Andy Wightman by pushing him down the Lothian list and gave us, ye gods, Lorna Slater instead. Voters had no say in any of this.”

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Critic

The Electoral Reform Society (ERS), a key critic of Scotland’s electoral system, has previously argued that while better than first-past-the-post, the system used to elect MPs at Westminster, it is not truly proportional. They contended that the system is biased towards larger parties, as smaller ones struggle to win seats.

Mr Wilson, who held several ministerial posts, including the industry and energy portfolio from 2001 to 2003, spoke out after the Conservative MSP Graham Simpson, who was elected via the regional lists, defected last week to Reform UK. He said: “Simpson will now return to well-earned obscurity. The bigger question is how he came to be there in the first place and the answer lies in the absurd list system by which almost half our MSPs are returned to Holyrood without anyone voting for them.”

Mr Wilson added: “The right to make a five-minute speech in a brief debate padded out by party servants who know nothing of the subject is not an attractive or respectful option. If Holyrood is ever to be the centre of excellence once dreamt of, rather than an intellectual desert with very few oases, there must be reforms in how it works and is elected.”

For next year’s election, Wales has been divided into 16 super-constituencies, with each returning six MSs elected via proportional representation.

'Disaster'

Jeff Jones, the former Labour leader of Bridgend council, said of Wales’ move to the closed list system: “It's going to be a disaster. No one has bothered to work out the consequences of six politicians representing the same area. Where will the offices be for a start?

“Do politicians of the same party hold joint surgeries? Six letters on the same issue to the local authority . Seven if you include the MP. No accountability if they are hopeless because the political parties decide who will be in the electable position on the list .Take Afan Ogwr Rhondda. “If [sitting MS] ĐavidRees [who is number three on the closed list] doesn't get elected there will be no Labour representative based in Aberafan.”