Blackpool North candidates asked why there is a lack of proportional representation when it comes to other parties in power
The Blackpool Gazette and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Blackpool North constituency at next month's general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
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NewsTranscript
00:00Would the candidates please explain why you do or do not want people like me to be represented
00:10in Lancashire. Proportional representation. Hundreds of thousands of people across Lancashire
00:19have no chance whatsoever of having a Liberal Democrat, a Green or a Reform MP. Why on earth
00:29not? I'm possibly the only Conservative MP who's ever brought a bill forward to the
00:38House of Commons to introduce proportional representation. So I think my record that
00:43you can read in Hansard stands for itself. Thank you Paul. So Reform UK's state policy
00:55as well as a lot of other reforms to the electoral process and the Lords is to introduce proportional
00:59representation. That's very clear. And I would say that Labour have said that for such a long
01:03time. They smell the chance of a big majority now and lo and behold Keir Starmer has backed off.
01:09There'll be no proportional representation. But when you think about the Brexit party who got
01:14four million votes and got no seats or maybe one seat and then you've got the SNP in Scotland who
01:21got three million votes and got 50 odd seats. There's something fundamentally wrong about that
01:25process where people's intentions and preferences for who they see in the House of Parliament is
01:30not represented in the seats. So I would say you should ask Conservatives and Labour why they're
01:34not willing to give people what they want and allow proportional representation. It is a debate
01:44within the Labour Party. It has been for quite a while now. The Labour Party have said they've got
01:49other priorities in the immediate future and I think dealing with the cost of living crisis
01:55and a lot of the other economic situations to make sure that we are stabilised is really important.
02:02But I will say on a personal point of view that I agree that I do think that actually politics
02:08should be more inclusive. That actually we should have a look at electoral reform and ways in which
02:14we can make sure that people's votes do count more than they do under this system. At the moment
02:21this seems to be the best of the worst systems we've got. But there's got to be a better way of
02:30doing things. It's an ongoing debate and I do think you make a valid point.
02:39So the first-past-the-post voting system that we have keeps us stuck in this two-vote race where it will
02:44either be Labour or it will be Tory and so as I just heard that hesitancy of what you said
02:50Clive, you said well we're going to deal with the cost of living crisis and I can hear the future
02:55Labour government. We're going to deal with that and then we're going to deal with this and then
02:58we're going to deal with that. I'm going to keep on pushing this can further down the road even
03:02though 70 percent of the membership said they wanted proportional representation. So how dare
03:07they ignore their membership and if they ignore their membership what the hell are they going to
03:11do with the majority to the rest of the country?
03:18If I recall it correctly I think there was a discussion some years ago in 2007 or something
03:27and at that time Labour did not support it. They in fact wrote to everybody saying that
03:33oh this is not the correct form of voting or election procedure or something. I think it
03:40was pushed down ages ago. Thank you.