DELEGATES at the CWU conference called today for an independent commission into electoral reform amid support for proportional representation at elections.

The conference in Bournemouth agreed a motion rejecting Westminster’s current and longstanding first-past-the-post system.

Supporters of electoral reform said the decision marked a historic shift for the union, which becomes the eighth Labour-affiliated union to make electoral reform its official policy.

The motion said first past the post was producing unrepresentative results and was at crisis point.

Ed Baldwin, a CWU regional political officer, told delegates: “First past the post no longer reflects those we represent and is producing results that do not match the will of the people.

“The Labour government has already accepted [the system] is broken by scrapping it for mayoral elections. If it distorts democracy there, then it distorts democracy at Westminster too.”

Nancy Platts, co-ordinator of the Politics for the Many campaign, said: “It is clear that we cannot continue with a voting system that ignores millions of votes and is producing more and more chaotic results that do not represent the way people have voted.”