Ben Bradshaw says reform needed to restore faith in political system. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA
Gordon Brown has been urged by a cabinet minister not to shelve plans to pass a law guaranteeing a referendum on electoral reform after the next election.
Ben Bradshaw, the culture secretary, told a Labour fundraising dinner in Battersea, south London, that he believed the government had to put down a paving amendment in this parliament to tie the hands of a future government.
"Electoral reform is the key to re-establishing faith in our political system. Legislating now will also expose the Tories for what they are – the no change status quo party," Bradshaw said. The issue pits most of the cabinet – who are in favour of reform – against the whips office and a voluble portion of the parliamentary Labour party.
The justice secretary, Jack Straw, has been trying to gauge which way to jump but is unlikely to spring the amendment on the party. His aides are pessimistic that time could be found for the issue.
This week the leaders of Labour's three main activist groups, the Fabian Society, Progress and Compass, urged Brown to back the legislation.
Brown announced at the party conference that a referendum on electoral reform and the alternative voting system would be in Labour's manifesto and held early in the next parliament.
But members of the cabinet including Bradshaw, the communities secretary, John Denham, and the Welsh secretary, Peter Hain, argue that the party should legislate before the election with a move that would attract the Liberal Democrats.
Among the opponents to the move is the schools secretary, Ed Balls, who argued in cabinet that the electoral reform was not a primary concern
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