Blair's Britain: PR heads left's list of urgent reforms

Labour's left, both traditional and modern, will begin this week to draw up an agenda for reform on which it will lobby Tony Blair's government.

The new Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, will join other Labour MPs at a conference this weekend to discuss how the "new left" will respond to the party's landslide victory.

The conference, organised by the Fabians and the Democratic Left with the Institute for Public Policy research, is likely to reject what many see as the old left's unrealistic demands. Instead, it will call for a firm timetable on electoral and constitutional reform from the Labour government.

Some "old" left-wingers were making their views known yesterday for the first time since the election was called.

Ken Livingstone, MP for Brent East, said in a television interview that the Chancellor Gordon Brown should impose substantial tax increases on high earners in spite of a pledge not to raise income tax.

"I don't believe for a minute that a Labour government is going to start hitting people earning under pounds 50,000 a year, and the vast majority of the public agree with that," he said.

Meanwhile, those on what likes to be called the "new left" were tailoring their demands to what they thought could be achieved. They intend to win a firm commitment on proportional representation, first for European elections and then, through a referendum, for Westminster elections.

Last night Cabinet sources were suggesting the issue of PR would not be tackled until the referendums on devolution for Scotland and Wales had been held.

However, the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform says it has already signed up 100 MPs and will fight vigorously for firm commitments. Mr Blair has said he is "not persuaded" of the case for electoral reform and John Prescott has expressed similar views. But Clare Short, Robin Cook and Mo Mowlam have said they favour it.

Labour has promised a referendum on the issue but has not said when it will take place. A possible interim measure would be to adopt the "list" system for Euro-elections, as the rest of Europe has done. This would involve the election of constituency MPs with an extra list who were not attached to an area but who helped to balance the numbers from each party.

Electoral reform campaigners seek a firm promise that a commission on the issue will sit later this year and want a halt called to boundary commissions for European constituencies. They say boundary changes would not be necessary if the voting system was changed.

Stephen Twigg, general secretary of the Fabians and the new MP for Enfield Southgate, Michael Portillo's former constituency, said he strongly supported the campaign. "The commitment to PR is part of being new Labour. It is part of the new politics Tony Blair is talking about. We need an end to tribalism and if that is what we stand for then PR should be part of it," he said.