Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 13 June 2018.

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Photo of Gareth Bennett Gareth Bennett UKIP 2:41, 13 June 2018

Diolch, Llywydd. I was interested in some of your remarks earlier, Minister, in response to Janet Finch-Saunders's contribution, particularly when—[Interruption.]—particularly when you talked about empowering the citizens and how the key issue facing local government is how to empower citizens, and you also said that it is the people who own the country, which are very noble sentiments.

Now, I'm interested in what you've been saying in the media recently, with your call for a second referendum on Brexit—a so-called people's vote. I was intrigued by this, as I thought we'd already had a people's vote. In my innocence, I thought that the referendum itself was the people's vote, but your public stance is intriguing and it's certainly something that we can perhaps develop today. 

Now, one of the problems that we have in Wales is that, at local government level, we have first-past-the-post, so that tends to mean that we can get councils elected—usually Labour councils, it has to be said—winning more than 50 per cent of the council seats on less then 50 per cent of the vote. Now, that's a generalisation, I accept that, but it is a broad picture of the local government scene in Wales that I'm sure you would recognise. You have recommended that councils consider moving towards a different system, which is the single transferable vote. Certainly, that system would be more democratic. With your well-known commitment to the democratic principles, how far will you be pushing local councils in Wales to move towards this more democratic system?