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Proportional Representation

Volume 103: debated on Tuesday 5 March 1918

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37, 38, and 30.

asked the Home Secretary (1) whether the Commissioners appointed to select 100 constituencies in which the principle of proportional representation is to be tried will be required to obtain the consent of the electors of those constituencies and their representatives in Parliament before any such experiment is forced upon them;

  • (2).whether, in formulating their scheme for the experimental application of the principle of proportional representation to Parliamentary elections in 100 selected constituencies, the Commissioners will be bound by the decision of this House whereby Birmingham was to be excluded from the operations of any such proposal;
  • (3)whether the Commissioners appointed to test the principle of proportional representation will, in selecting the constituencies which are to be experimented upon, give priority to those which are represented by Members who voted in favour of this principle when it formed the subject of Divisions in the House of Commons?
  • The answer to the first two questions is in the negative. The third question is a matter for the Commissioners to determine.

    What steps, if any, are being taken to ascertain the views of the representatives of the people in the various constituencies affected on the question?

    I have answered that. The Commissioners have power to hold local inquiries, and I have not the least doubt they will do so.

    How long after the Report is issued are these inquiries to be held?

    Is my right hon. Friend aware that the Instructions to these Commissioners have not been laid before the House, and therefore we are entirely in the dark as to what is going on?

    The Instructions are only those contained in the Act of Parliament. There are no others.

    Will not the recommendations of the Commissioners come before the House for its sanction?