Proportional representation and accountability: Scotland’s experience

The case for electoral reform is powerful, but Scotland’s experience raises serious questions about what proportional representation can do to party democracy, says PAULINE BRYAN

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THE 2024 general election had the most disproportional outcome in UK electoral history. Four hundred and eleven Labour MPs were elected, that is 62 per cent of the total seats, on just 33.7 per cent of the votes. The turnout was 57.9 per cent. Down by nearly 8 per cent on the previous election.

It has been termed the loveless landslide that left the country and eventually Labour MPs dissatisfied, disillusioned and desperate for change.

The Keir Starmer-led Labour Party received fewer votes than Jeremy Corbyn achieved in 2017 and only marginally more than in 2019, but Starmer claimed it as a massive victory.

Not surprisingly, the first-past-the-post electoral system for Westminster has lost credibility. Even the most recent beneficiary, the Labour Party, has many members and MPs demanding reform.

In 2022 the Labour conference voted overwhelmingly for a review of the voting system at general elections. It was ignored by the leadership.

Andy Burnham wrote an article for the Guardian earlier that year outlining his support for a different electoral system as well as the abolition of the House of Lords and an elected senate of the nations and regions.

It may be that, to quote Burnham, “There is nothing more unstoppable than an idea whose time has come and PR’s time has come.”

This year’s annual conference presents a real chance that Labour will initiate some action on proportional representation and perhaps further constitutional reforms.

There is a contemporary motion demanding that “the Labour government should take a first step towards a fair voting system for general elections, by launching a national commission on electoral reform within the Prime Minister’s first 100 days.”

Before we accept this possibility as a clear democratic advance that will introduce, in Burnham’s words “collaboration, partnership and consensus-building,” we should give some thought to what has happened in Scotland since the introduction of a variant of PR was introduced in Holyrood.

Scotland has three different electoral systems operating: first past the post for Westminster, the additional members system in the Scottish Parliament and the single transferable vote in local government.

I should start by saying that none of these have delivered collaboration, partnership or consensus-building in any meaningful way. But it is the impact on the Labour Party that gives me most concern.

Traditionally the Labour Party had a network of branches that met monthly to which local Labour councillors reported.

From each branch members were elected to the constituency party which also included trade union representatives.

Most constituencies in Scotland had Labour MPs who were expected to attend the monthly meeting.

Just a few years into the Scottish Parliament, but already on its third leader, Jack McConnell introduced reforms in local government.

It followed the pattern of Labour’s selection of its candidates for MSPs with a determined effort to keep out people who did not meet the New Labour image. It was portrayed as a “cleaning-up” exercise but effectively reduced the powers of local government to have policies that in any way challenged the Scottish government.

The introduction of payments to councillors gave local leaders power to reward or punish their own councillors with posts that gave additional income, and proportional representation broke the link between Labour councillors and their local Labour branch.

The introduction of proportional representation cut deeply into the party’s declining base and very quickly branches ceased to function and were closed, thus ending 100 years of Labour Party democracy which was based on the bottom up.

Constituencies became all members meetings based on the Scottish parliamentary boundaries and lost the authority to hold their MPs to account.

Since Donald Dewer’s day, few Labour MSPs chose to act as representatives of their constituencies but instead accepted the centralised discipline of the Scottish Parliamentary Party leader.

In the 10 years between 1997 and 2007, when the SNP replaced Labour as the largest single party in Holyrood, Scottish Labour membership fell from a peak of 30,000 members down to 17,000.

There was a boost during the Corbyn years when it rose to over 20,000 and we know from the vote for the new Scottish leader last week that it is now around 11,000.

Today in one of the largest Constituency Labour Parties in Scotland there is no regular contact between Labour councillors and the membership.

While there are now two MPs, the constituency is not coterminous with their parliamentary constituency and there is only sporadic contact. The habit of holding an MP to account has been lost.

Now there are no first-past-the-post MSPs in the city but there are three from the regional list, none of whom are accountable to any particular CLP.

The voting system has played a part in creating the current malaise. Proportional representation gives the party leadership much more power to place candidates and to favour some and hold back others.

It is well known that Jackie Baillie, the deputy leader of the Scottish Party, made the crucial decisions on the first-past-the-post candidates and then once they were selected, she encouraged the decision that only those people who were first-past-the-post candidates could be on the regional list.

In every other election the list had been open to members to put themselves forward and then be placed in order of preference by the members.

PR might be inevitable, but it is not without its problems. It gives even more power to the party bosses and disenfranchises Labour constituencies even further. Before we support changes in the wider electoral system, Labour Party members, need to look at ways of ensuring democracy and accountability are built into party structures.

As membership declines in the Scottish Labour Party the power of the few at the top increases, as does their failure to understand why Labour is no longer a force in Scottish politics.

The dire state of the party was amplified during the recent election of leader with the choice between two candidates so uninspiring that not even half the membership used their votes.

Starmer may have achieved a loveless landslide, but Michael Marra is Scottish Labour’s new lacklustre leader.

Pauline Bryan is convener of the Red Paper Collective.

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