This morning’s Western Mail reports that Labour have been accused of branding their AMs as “second class parliamentarians” by not giving them a dedicated vote in the party’s UK leadership election.
Under Labour’s electoral college voting system, one third of votes go to ordinary party members, another third to affiliated organisations – mainly unions – and the remainder to parliamentarians. The mathematics mean that the votes of Labour MPs are worth considerably more than those of ordinary party members.
However AMs and MSPs [Members of the Scottish Parliament] are not included in the electoral college as parliamentarians – this only includes Labour MPs and MEPs. But in last December’s election of a Welsh Labour leader, MPs with Welsh constituencies did have a vote.
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, Kirsty Williams, said: “It is clear from the Labour Party’s own rules that Welsh Labour has little or no say at a UK level in making important decisions. Their [party’s] lack of regard towards AMs and Wales is typical of the Labour Party. This lack of influence may explain why, for 13 years, the Labour government refused to change the Barnett formula to provide a fairer funding system for Wales and why we have to delay the decision to hold a referendum until 2011.
“Scottish Labour MSPs are in a similar situation, and have strongly voiced their opposition to this treatment by the UK party. We are yet to hear a Welsh Labour AM echo the disquiet of their Scottish colleagues.
“This also raises questions about Labour’s attitude towards the Assembly and devolution. They clearly don’t think AMs are worthy of a vote as elected representatives, again reflecting their general attitude towards Wales.”
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