Nick Brown and David Miliband call for US primaries to decide candidates

Aug 8 2009 by Will Green, The Journal

LABOUR should open the selection of Parliamentary candidates beyond party members through US-style “primary” elections, according to two of the party’s most senior figures.

Government Chief Whip Nick Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband – both North East MPs – made the call yesterday, with Mr Brown saying it was vital to involve more people in key decisions.

Their call came after the Conservatives held an all-postal primary in Totnes this week, where more than 16,000 people voted to select the party’s local candidate.

Mr Brown, who is Minister for the North East and a close ally of the Prime Minister, said: “It is an experience I would like to see developed, the more we involve people in our democracy the better.

“I certainly think we should look at what was done and see if we can learn any lessons for ourselves.”

His comments came as Foreign Secretary David Miliband, MP for South Shields, said US-style primary elections would give the public a greater say in selecting candidates.

In an article for the left-leaning magazine Tribune, he said the traditional structures of mainstream political parties were “dying”, leaving a gap between Labour’s membership and its potential voter base.

“We say we want to listen to our voters, why not a system of registered voters as in the US to create the basis for primaries?” added Mr Miliband, who did not outline exactly what structure he wanted to see.

But he said a Greek party allowed people equal rights as members or “friends” – holding open primaries to select candidates for local elections.

Speaking to The Journal, Mr Brown said: “I would like to say the idea developed, but I don’t want to just say ‘right let’s do it this way’ because there are difficulties.

“The obvious difficulty is to allow people who don’t traditionally support your party and would never support your party to take part in your primary election.