Beginning of the end for first past the post

The first step was taken last night towards ending the current first-past-the-post system of electing MPs to the Commons. Anthony Bevins, Political Editor, examines the potential for a quiet revolution.

Paddy Ashdown last night welcomed the establishment of a high-powered, independent commission to find a different, broadly proportional, voting system.

"This announcement marks a truly historic moment in British democratic history," the Liberal Democrat leader said in a statement issued after a meeting of the joint Lab-Lib Cabinet Committee.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said that Tony Blair had not changed his mind on the issue; he remained "unpersuaded", but felt that it was right, in line with Labour's manifesto commitment to giving the voters a choice as to whether they wanted a change.

That choice would be offered through a referendum, expected to take place before the next election, on the proposals that come from the commission.

Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, said in a Commons written reply that the commission, which is expected to report back by the end of next year, would be chaired, as expected, by Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, the former Labour Cabinet minister and leader of the old Social Democratic Party.

He will have four eminent colleagues: Lord Alexander of Weedon, a Tory peer who is also chairman of the National Westminster Bank; Sir John Chilcot, the outgoing permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office; Lady Gould, Labour's former director of organisation; and David Lipsey, an Economist journalist, who was a member of James Callaghan's staff in 1977-79.

Outlining the terms of reference for the commission, agreed to the complete satisfaction of the Liberal Democrats, Mr Straw said it would be free to produce "any appropriate system or combination of systems in recommending an alternative to the present system for parliamentary elections to be put before the people in the Government's referendum.

"The commission shall observe the requirement for broad proportionality, the need for stable government, an extension of voter choice and the maintenance of a link between MPs and geographical constituencies."

Bob Maclennan, the Liberal Democrat's constitutional spokesman, said his party's favoured system, the single transferable vote, would fulfil all those tests, but it is just as likely that the commission will produce a mix-and-match of the alternative vote and the additional member system that could attract a greater consensus of support across Labour and the Liberal Democrat parties.

Under the alternative vote system, constituencies remain as they are, but electors cast their votes by putting first, second, third and other preferences for candidates, and the candidate who eventually gets more than half of votes cast, or redistributed, is elected.

The alternative vote is not a proportional system, but it could be made "broadly" proportional with an injection of the additional member system, under which electors have two votes, one for a constituency member, and another for a "top-up" candidate from a party list.

Under the single transferable vote, constituencies are enlarged to return up to five MPs, and voters are able to mark preferences for all candidates; the system used in the Republic of Ireland.