LETTER: No alternative to transferable vote

Sir: The position of the Liberal Democrats on electoral reform is unchanged. We favour the Single Transferable Vote as the system best designed to reflect fairly in Parliament the voting preferences of the electors.

Your report (1 April), which claims that I have "intimated" Liberal Democrat willingness to consider the Alternative Vote system and "suggested" modifications to it is wrong on both counts. Like others in all parties who recognise the distortions produced by the present "first past the post" voting system, I do look for cross-party support for electoral reform where it may be found, but what the reformers seek is a properly proportional system. The Alternative Vote is not that system.

Robert Maclennan MP

House of Commons