One might have thought, listening to the noble Lord, that he was talking about his liking for PR, but I will read very carefully what he said in those 17 minutes.
There is one specific amendment that I should like to address, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, spoke on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Mann. Although he is not in his place, a specific question was asked on Amendment 144D. That amendment would allow returning officers to establish polling stations for five days ahead of the day of a poll. Although advance in-person voting is not available in the UK, voters are already able to cast their vote in advance of the poll by post. The amendment would pose significant logistical challenges for returning officers, including the need to prevent double voting, and could create an inconsistency across the country as to when and where people were able to vote in person, so I would not be able to accept that amendment in this group.
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I will address the broader PR question at the end because I am obliged to in that amendments are before the Committee. One reason why these proposals are in
the Bill is that it is actually an elections Bill, so it is quite a logical place to include provision relating to elections. Clause 11 moves the voting system for elections for police and crime commissioners in England and Wales, the Mayor of London, combined authority mayors and local authority mayors in England to the simple majority voting system—first past the post. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Kilclooney, whose efforts in Northern Ireland I profoundly respect, that the proposals before the Committee do not affect Northern Ireland. The position within Northern Ireland to address the particular nature of that polarised society is outwith this piece of legislation.
The first past the post system is robust, secure and provides strong local accountability. I have listened with interest to the exegesis of successive Conservative manifestos, and it is no secret that the Conservative Party supports first past the post. That is our position. In the 2019 manifesto, we said:
“We will continue to support the First Past the Post system of voting”.
We do and we are, and we believe that moving to first past the post will make it easier for the public to express a clear preference.
Even the noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, was telling us about the tremendous complexity of these forms that came in that made people confused. He says they can be changed but first past the post is simple and easy. It is well understood, trusted and will reduce complexity for voters and administrators alike.
We have an Elections Bill. We have a party committed to the promotion of first past the post. What happened? What happened was the 2021 election. The noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, was kind enough to refer to comments I made at an earlier stage. Perhaps I could remind the Committee—I think he did give these figures; they are correct and they bear hearing again—that the overall rejection rate in the May 2021 elections was 0.8% in local council elections, 2.7% for police and crime commissioners and 4.3% for the Mayor of London.
In the 2021 London mayoral elections, with this supplementary vote that some who have spoken are so keen on, almost 5% of the total votes in the first round were rejected. That is 114,201 ballots rejected. On second preferences, 265,353 voters were invalidated because their second preference was cast for the same candidate as the first, so they were not particularly bothered about having a supplementary choice, one might infer. Some 319,978 second preferences were unmarked and 7,000 people voted for far too many candidates.
Given that, it can hardly be contested that the system that we have did not cause confusion. These figures are significantly higher than at elections run under first the post. We had this 4.3% rejection but at the last general election under the tried system that some of us prefer, just 0.36% of ballots were rejected, including, no doubt, some that were deliberately spoiled. That is the circumstance that has changed. There is an elections Bill, there is a Government who have given a commitment to promote and support first past the post and there is clear evidence in the Electoral Commission report that came out in September that there are problems with the supplementary vote system.
Clause 11, as well as reflecting those things—and I am sorry to say this to some noble Lords who have spoken; I know that they do not like it—reflects the preference of British voters as expressed in the 2011 referendum. I am sorry this is the case. Two-thirds of people voted in favour of retaining first past the post for parliamentary elections in the 2011 referendum. Faced with that—