Gary Titley: Reform call

A senior Labour MEP has called on the government to "completely rethink" the system used to elect members of the Brussels parliament.

In an exclusive interview with ePolitix.com, Gary Titley said that the current proportional system is unsatisfactory.

The Labour leader in the European parliament said it would be better to replace the current multi-member regional constituencies with smaller constituencies and additional members to make the result proportional.

"We looked at that when I was on the Labour Party’s Plant committee," he said.

"The only problem about that is that we came to the conclusion that the constituencies would be so big as to create all the disadvantages of having big regions with none of the advantages of having a regional mandate.

"However, I have got to say, we are on the whole not entirely happy with this system. I think we should be looking at the viability of using that model for the next European elections."

Titley told ePolitix he has yet to raise the issue with ministers, but said that "after these elections there is going to have to be a complete rethink about the electoral system as part of the review of PR as a whole".

"We need to look at how it has worked and whether we can find a system that maintains the pros but reduces the cons quite frankly," he said.

Key issues

Titley also rejected Liberal Democrat suggestions that voters should cast their votes on the basis of events in Iraq.

"Clearly in any election there are a lot of issues going through people's mind," he said.

"But I think it is important that in this election we focus on the European perspective on the work Labour has done in Europe in terms of getting major influence on decision making."

He added that the proposed constitution "is not going to be affected either way by how people vote in these elections".

Titley said voters on the doorstep were receptive to messages about how action at an EU level had improved their quality of life.

"The problem is you have this constant bombardment from the right wing press which is anti-European," the MEP said.

"You are having to fight your way through all the mythologies and nonsense."