A guide to Westminster reform ideas

Suddenly, everyone wants to reform Parliament in an effort to win back public confidence. It's not just the rotten expenses system, which is claiming scalps on both sides of the House of Commons, that needs changing. Everything is up for grabs - from the way we hold elections, to the size of the Commons, to reform of the House of Lords. Here is The First Post's guide to the latest thinking:

DAVID CAMERON, CONSERVATIVE
The Tory leader used on an article in the Guardian on May 26 to call for "a massive, sweeping, radical redistribution of power" from the political elite to the people. He says a new Conservative government will:

♦ Consider introducing fixed-term parliaments, ending the right of Downing Street to control the timing of general elections;

♦ Curb the power of the executive by limiting the use of the royal prerogative which allows the prime minister, in the name of the monarch, to make major decisions;

♦ Publish the expenses claims of all public servants earning more than
£150,000.

Cameron said the expenses scandal had highlighted a deeper malaise in Britain. "The anger, the suspicion and the cynicism... are the result of people's slow but sure realisation that they have very little control over the world around them, and over much that determines whether or not they'll live happy and fulfilling lives."

ALAN JOHNSON, LABOUR

The Health Secretary used an article in the Times on May 25 to call for a referendum, to be held on the same day as the next general election, on whether to implement the 1998 proposal by the late Roy Jenkins for an Alternative Vote Plus - or AV-Plus - system to replace the current first-past-the-post system.

This is a complex electoral procedure, which includes a measure of proportional representation: voters would still choose a constituency MP, but would also vote for a further tier of MPs selected on a more proportional party basis.

According to a follow-up in the Times, Johnson's proposal is receiving support among Cabinet ministers and could be yet be included in the next Labour manifesto. As many as 100 Labour MPs have expressed interest in electoral reform, possibly putting Johnson at the forefront of a popular party campaign.

NICK CLEGG, LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
As well as fighting for proportional representation and reform of the House of Lords, the Lib Dems want to deal with the specific issue of how to get rid quickly of "bad" MPs.

Nick Clegg, the party leader, told the BBC's Politics Show that he wants a system of constituency petitions to be brought in so that any MP who breaks the rules can be axed without having to wait for an election. A petition signed by five per cent of constituents would be enough to remove an MP who done something "seriously wrong".

The system would deal with MPs such as Derek Conway, who was able to stay as an MP despite being suspended from Parliament and kicked out of the Conservative Party.

HELENA KENNEDY, LABOUR
The Labour peer and veteran civil liberties campaigner is reported by friends to be drumming up volunteers to stand as independents against sitting MPs caught up in the expenses scandal. The independents would be committed to pushing for parliamentary reform, including US-style primaries and a limit on the time MPs could sit.

The novelist Robert Harris told the Guardian on May 25 that after talking to Kennedy he had considered standing against the Tory Alan Duncan in Rutland and Melton, but had decided not to. (Duncan claimed £4,000 of taxpayers' money between 2004 and 2008 for gardening costs, which he is now paying back.)

Approached by the Guardian, Kennedy denied she was attempting to organise a grouping of candidates committed to reform. However, in a letter to the Observer on May 24 she led a group of 53 intellectuals and academics arguing that the current political system was "close to collapse" and calling for a referendum on proportional representation.

The letter said: "The expense crisis reveals a nation governed by a political elite that has stopped listening and who are accountable to no one but their party machines... We demand a new electoral system that makes everyone's vote count."