Anas Sarwar in 'betrayal of democracy' after ditching support for electoral reform

ANAS Sarwar has been accused of a “total betrayal of democracy” after ditching support for electoral reform.

It comes after Labour achieved a landslide victory in the General Election last week on a vote share of just 34 per cent, just a 1.6 percentage point increase from the party's share in 2019.

In Scotland, the situation was similar with Labour winning 65.0% of Scottish seats (37) on 35.3% of the vote and the SNP ending up with just 15.8% of the seats (9) with 30% of the vote.

But Anas Sarwar said the public does not want a “big debate” about changes, despite the Labour conference in 2022 calling for a shift towards a “proportional” model and now Prime Minister Keir Starmer previously indicating support for the switch in 2020.

The Scottish Labour leader, speaking on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show, said: “This is the system, this is the rules, and this has been the case even when we had, for example, one MP [in Scotland] even though we had much higher votes in proportion.

“That’s the system we’re in. Our manifesto set out that we support the current voting system and we’ve got to make this system work. Everyone knew the rules going into the election campaign. We’ve fought the election campaign and we won the election campaign.

“We don’t make the rules, we played the election by the rules. Let’s not have another big debate about changing the voting system, I’d much rather get on with changing our country.”

(Image: PA)

Now, the Scottish Greens have slammed Sarwar’s comments – saying that the party “must not turn its back on electoral reform just because it has benefited from the system this time.”

“To do so would be a total betrayal of democracy,” MSP Maggie Chapman (above) said.

“Voters across Scotland and the UK have, time and again, been let down by this disproportionate system which in too many cases leads to voters being represented by MPs they did not vote for.

“The Scottish Greens want to see a fairer voting system at all levels of elections in the UK, ensuring all levels of government reflect the range of political views that people support.”