An interesting comment, too, below about how MPs act like sheep for their Whips …
” … “Mr Howlett was the only Conservative MP to vote dfor Green MP Caroline Lucas’s bill in support of introducing proportional representation for elections, which she previously tabled as a private members bill.
He suggested that though few Tories supported electoral reform, some MPs appeared to be open to persuasion.
“I know a number of MPs who I spoke to just outside the lobbies who were asking ‘Is this a whipped vote, or not a whipped vote? Oh it’s not a whipped vote, I’m not going to go through.’” They did think ‘you know what, it would be quite interesting to be thinking about that’.”
Mr Howlett also threw his support behind a petition organised by the Make Votes Matter campaign group calling on the Constitution Minister to look at the possibility of changing the voting system.
Labour supported queued around the block at the party’s conference in Liverpool last weekend to hear about proportional representation in what is understood to be the biggest rally in favour of the policy in the party’s recent history.
MPs from across the opposition party’s factions – including John McDonnell, Clive Lewis, Chuka Umunna, and Stephen Kinnock threw their weight behind the policy. Labour’s leader Jeremy Corbyn has yet to decide on the issue, however. …”
East Devon Watch 