As you may have seen in my maiden speech, some of my very first comments in the House of Commons were that “I will always campaign for electoral reform so that everybody’s vote really counts.” I stand by that, and always will. 

Liberal Democrats believe that no politician should be able to take you for granted, so we must change the electoral system for electing MP’s and Councillors to ensure better accountability and representation.

I joined the APPG for Fair Elections and also wrote to the Minister expressing my concern about the Conservative run East Sussex County Council's successful attempt to delay our local county elections this year. 

We also need to go further by:

1. Holding Government Ministers to account for corruption and sleaze by enshrining the Ministerial Code in Legislation.
2. Scrapping the Conservatives’ voter ID scheme.
3. Reforming the House of Lords so that it has a proper democratic mandate.
4. Transferring greater powers away from Westminster and Whitehall, putting them in the hands of local communities.
5. Taking the big money out of politics by capping donations to political parties to prevent wealthy oligarchs from buying our democracy. 

Unfortunately, I voted against the government’s proposals in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, because I do not believe this bill is worth the paper it is written on.

This Bill will not result in the ambitious shift of power from Westminster and Whitehall to communities and individuals, so that decisions are made by and for the people they affect. We believe this bill is a missed opportunity for substantive local government reform. 

Instead, this Bill will weaken parliamentary scrutiny of powers conferred to local authorities, divert resource away from local services, do nothing to alleviate the crisis in local government finances, enable the appointment of unelected officials by the new Mayors, fail to enact meaningful electoral reform, move decision making further from communities, and risk further local election cancellations.