A Kick In The Ballots

Fun and games in Erith and Thamesmead, a super-safe Labour seat where the sitting MP is retiring. The party machine has had to step in after the ballot box for the selection of a new PPC was found to have been tampered with.

Where most MPs come from is by far the biggest political scandal in this country today.

Instead of the current eye-popping arrangements, in the course of each Parliament, each party should submit a shortlist of the two candidates nominated by the most branches (including those of affiliated organisations where applicable) to an independently administered, binding ballot of the whole electorate at constituency level for the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, and at national level for the Leader.

All the ballots for Prospective Parliamentary Candidate would be held on the same day, and all the ballots for Leader would be held on the same day. Each of these ballots would be held at public expense at the request of five per cent or more of registered voters in the constituency or the country, as appropriate.

Each candidate in each of these ballots would have a tax-free campaigning allowance out of public funds, conditional upon matching funding by resolution of a membership organisation. The name of that organisation would appear on the ballot paper after that of the candidate. And there would be a ban on all other campaign funding, and on all campaign spending above twice that allowance.