Thank you for contacting me about electoral reform and the UK Parliament.
It is important that our UK parliamentary voting system is a robust and secure way of electing representatives, easily understood by voters and provides for strong local accountability. I believe that the present First Past the Post (FPTP) system achieves this and provides a clear link between elected representatives and their constituents in a way that other systems may not.
Furthermore, the present FPTP system will, more often than not, ensure that elected governments have a working majority in Parliament. This in turn allows for a more decisive and stable form of government. As well as decisive government, a clear opposition is often an outcome of elections using FPTP, allowing for effective scrutiny of the government of the day.
Proportional representation, however, would weaken the direct constituency link, a key constitutional feature of our parliamentary democracy. It is also a more complicated voting system and less familiar than the established FPTP system currently in place for UK parliamentary elections.
I also back the choice of voters in the 2011 voting system referendum to vote to back FPTP. 13 million voters made clear their decision to stick with FPTP rather than switch to the Alternative Vote system, and I stand by this support for FPTP.
Thank you again for contacting me.
