The Next Generation reforming Westminster
Chuka Umunna, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Streatham, proposes radical reform of the political system.
The country has been gripped and disgusted by the reported abuses of expenses and allowances by politicians of all parties. In the wake of the political crisis which has followed, Chuka Umunna, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Streatham, has called on the country’s next generation of politicians to step forward with proposals on how to reform the system in several high profile interventions this week.
Writing in the Guardian newspaper on 21 May 2009 with Cllr Mark Bennett, a Streatham South ward councillor, Umunna and Bennett said of the scandal:
“As the Commons considers what to do, Labour’s next generation has a duty to make a contribution if it does not wish to inherit the public’s contempt.”
Commenting on the measures needed, Umunna and Bennett, said:
“We must start by recognising that if we want to dismantle the ‘gentlemen’s club’, we must tackle the machine politics out of which it was born. Root and branch constitutional reform is a prerequisite. We must elect the Lords, make the voting system more proportional and end the degraded adversarial culture of Westminster, as exemplified by the so-called theatre of prime minister’s questions.”
Umunna is also part of a panel of experts including the pollster, Peter Kellner, the former independent MP, Martin Bell and Tory MP Ann Widdecombe brought together today by the Independent on Sunday to consider how to solve Parliament’s problems.
Asked whether he thought we were in danger of going too far in condemning MPs and putting off good people from politics, Umunna said in the newspaper:
“Yes. My own MP, for example, is ranked 597th out of the 645 MPs for the amount of expenses he claimed in 2008. He has no right to claim for a second home and did not even know he could nor would he dream of claiming for food, yet all MPs are shamed by association with the miscreants. While there are decent people like my MP, nevertheless I fear this Parliament will go down as the ‘Rotten Parliament’.”
Umunna was also asked whether he thought electoral reform would improve perceptions of MPs’ probity, and said:
“Yes. MPs say their claims were within the rules but if the rules are so moribund, where was the clamour for change in the Commons before the abuses were published? Parliament is a gentleman’s club born out of machine politics. Electoral reform would introduce multi-party politics, the revival of a culture of scrutiny and blow the status quo apart, which is just what we need.”
In addition, in today’s Sunday Times, Umunna calls for party parliamentary selection processes to be opened up and to involve local people:
“I am really keen on more public involvement in the selection of candidates. The power to shortlist candidates could be retained by the party, but you could consider introducing some public involvement in selecting the actual candidate.”
Earlier in the week, Umunna was a signatory to a letter highly critical of the Labour Party leadership for its handling of the issue.
