Proportional Representation: General Elections Debate
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Tom Hayes
Main Page: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)Department Debates - View all Tom Hayes's debates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Proportional Representation: General Elections
Tom Hayes Excerpts(1 day, 12 hours ago)
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Jas Athwal (Ilford South) (Lab)
Although I do not want to upset the camaraderie going back and forth across the Chamber, this is debate, and this is democracy. I am sure we can all agree that no voting system is perfect; we are choosing between imperfect systems. That is a fact. We must decide based on what works best for our country, and PR is not the panacea that everybody is talking about today.
In 2011, we put the question to the British people. They overwhelmingly rejected the alternative vote system, choosing to stick with first past the post.
Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)
On Monday morning, I visited the year 10 citizenship class at St Peter’s school in Bournemouth, where I spoke with several young people, including Ozzie, who was only just born at the time of the last vote. He asked me whether I agreed that too many people feel their vote does not count, that too many younger people feel disconnected from democracy, and that the continuation of first past the post will leave more people—particularly younger people—disconnected from democracy.