Member News
If the number of MPs had grown out of all proportion to the size of the electorate then there would clearly be a problem, but that is not the case
Jack Straw
Nick Clegg has put political self interest ahead of democratic principles, the Labour Party has said.
Speaking during the second reading of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill in the Commons this afternoon shadow justice secretary Jack Straw said proposals to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600 represented the "very antitheses" of the high ideals the deputy prime minister claimed to hold.
"They do represent the worst kind of political skulduggery for narrow party advantage," he said.
Labour fear that the reduction in the number of seats is an attempt to "gerrymander" constituencies in such a way that favours the election of Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs.
Opening the debate the deputy prime minister had said the House of Commons did not have 650 seats "by design" but rather it was the result of "flawed rules that have a ratchet effect on the number of MPs".
Britain now had the largest directly elected chamber in EU, he added.
Rejecting accusations that he was attempting to fix constituency boundaries in order to keep Labour out of power; he said the government would have "no say" in where the new boundaries would fall.
Clegg said the problem with the current electoral map was that seats vary too much in size and are based on out of date demographic information.
"The broken scales of our democracy mean ten votes in Glasgow North have the same weight as one vote in Manchester Central," he said.
He added: "The will of the voters is not weighted equally".
Under the coalition's proposals each constituency will have roughly 76,000 voters. At present the size of seats varies significantly, which the government claims is unfair.
But Straw attacked the "banal" comparison made by Clegg between Britain and its European neighbours.
"We have roughly the same ratio of elected representatives as France and Italy and a much smaller ratio in comparison to other EU partners," he told MPs.
"Of course this House is larger, because the population is greater here and we are not a federal state.
"That said we are only 20 more than the bundestag in Germany".
He added: "If the number of MPs had grown out of all proportion to the size of the electorate then there would clearly be a problem, but that is not the case".
Clegg said the bill, which also paves the way for a referendum on switching to the Alternative Vote system, was the "bare minimum" that any Parliament serious about political renewal must deliver.
"It is not for us to decide, it is the people of Britain to decide what kind of electoral system they want," he said.
"We promised a 'new politics'; today is the day we must begin to deliver on that promise.
"We must make the system fair; we must put people back in charge."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd