DEAR Editor – In his letter of July 7 Peter Clarke accused me of being selective in targeting my MP, Robin Walker, for believing that our current First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system is fair. He is right, I was.

As a Worcester resident I am only allowed to cast my vote for one MP in one constituency – Worcester. It would, therefore, be totally inappropriate for me to identify other MPs who are also happy with the current electoral system – something that Mr Clarke agrees needs changing – as it is down to the voters in those other constituencies to influence their own MPs should they feel the need to do so.

Under our present “fair” system the organisation, Make Votes Matter, calculates that it takes 38,000 votes to elect a Conservative Member of Parliament whereas it takes 51,000 to elect a Labour one, 336,00 for a Lib Dem one and a massive 866,00 for a Green Party one.

By any stretch of the imagination this cannot be considered fair and, as a consequence, I feel it entirely appropriate to draw other Worcester constituents’ attention to our local MP’s stance on this matter.

Mr Clarke supported his argument by suggesting that 24 million people voted for one of the two main parties neither of which are currently keen to change the present system. 

Since neither gave the electorate the option of voting for changing FPTP in their manifestos then I suggest that the assumption that all of those 24 million are content with the FPTP is a rather tenuous one. 

Mike Levins

Worcester