Plaskitt argues case for voting change

Mr Plaskitt, who represented the constituency for 13 years until 2010, took part in a debate at a Warwick District Council meeting about whether the country’s voting system should change to the ‘alternative vote’ (AV) method, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference rather than just selecting one.

He said: “I worked hard to get this commitment into the Labour party’s 1997 manifesto and it did lead to a proposal for electoral reform.

“This reform is now a crucial part of reforming trust. AV is not a compromise nor a halfway house. It’s an ideal solution that fits.”

Proposer Colin Quinney, coordinator of the campaign for AV for Coventry and Warwickshire, said: “My children cannot understand whey the current system does not encourage them to vote for who they please. It turns them and their friends off politics and that cannot be healthy.”

He also argued that the system would make MPs more accountable to the electorate.

But opposer Charlotte Vere, who works for the ‘no’ campaign, said AV would be “complicated and expensive” and that the only party which will benefit will be the Liberal Democrats. She said: “It does not treat all votes equally. If you do have one preference and one preference only and your candidate is eliminated in all these complicated rounds, what happens to your vote? It gets chucked away.”

Twenty-one Warwick district councillors voted against reform, while 17 voted for it.