Our Agenda for Change

1. Introduce a system of proportional representation by the Single Transferable Vote (STV) for electing MPs, and local councillors in England and Wales.

Proportional Representation for UK elections is the single most important reform we can make; the key that unlocks the door to other reforms in our politics that British people urgently need. But of course, other changes are needed:

2. Maintain systems of proportional representation in Scotland ,Wales, Northern Ireland and London; and return elections for metro mayors to either the original supplementary vote (SV) system; or the alternative vote, which provides more voter choice than SV.
3. Shift power away from Westminster and Whitehall, so local decisions are made by and for the people and communities they affect.
4. Introduce a written constitution for a federal United Kingdom with a strong voice for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and oppose a second Scottish independence referendum and independence.
5. Reform the House of Lords with a proper democratic mandate.
6. Establish national and local citizens’ assemblies to ensure that the public are fully engaged in finding solutions to the greatest challenges we face, such as tackling the climate emergency and the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms by the state.
7. Take big money out of politics by capping donations to political parties.
8. Strengthen democratic rights and participation by scrapping the Conservatives’ voter ID scheme and by giving 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote.
9. Extend the right to full participation in civic life to all EU citizens with settled status, and to anyone else who has lived in the UK for at least five years and has the right to stay permanently.
10. Introduce a legal requirement for local authorities to inform citizens of the steps they must take to be successfully registered with far greater efforts in particular to register underrepresented groups, and ensuring that the UK has an automatic system of inclusion in elections.
11. Enable all UK citizens living abroad to vote for MPs in separate overseas constituencies, and to participate in UK referendums.
12. Hold UK Government Ministers to account for corruption and sleaze by enshrining the Ministerial Code in legislation.
13. Restore to Parliament – instead of the Prime Minister alone – the power to call and set the date of an early general election.
14. Ensure that a new Prime Minister, and their programme for government, must win a confidence vote of MPs before taking office.
15. Take a zero-tolerance approach to harassment and bullying in Westminster and legislating to empower constituents to recall MPs who commit sexual harassment.
16. Bring into force Section 106 of the Equality Act 2010, requiring political parties to publish candidate diversity data.