8. Plaid Cymru Debate: Assembly Reform

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:03 pm on 10 July 2019.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 6:03, 10 July 2019

Well, thank you, Alun Davies. I think, like you, I was pleased to sign the Electoral Reform Society's statement today, and it was good to see it signed from across part of the Chamber. But I believe that there's a good discussion, and I expect we'll hear more about it in a minute. Also, the Electoral Reform Society came to our party conference—I don't know if they came to your party conferences—and we had a very good debate. What was interesting was how many members not just of our party, but of third sector organisations and campaigning groups, came to that fringe meeting, and we engaged and we got their views about how we should respond to the Laura McAllister report. [Interruption.]

Can I just finally, then, say that I do believe we can move forward, in line with the Labour amendment to the motion today, which I urge you to support? Our position is that no legislation designed to reform the size of the Assembly and the electoral system should be introduced without a public mandate via a manifesto commitment. But I think work now has to be done. We've done this in the past in a cross-party way effectively, with constructive engagement leading to consensus, and that's what we seek today. Diolch.