Prime Minister's question asked in the House of Commons, by Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Conservative). It was answered on Wednesday, 3 February 2010 on behalf of the Prime Minister.

Engagements

Question: Thirteen years into government and 90 days before a general election, can the Prime Minister tell us what first attracted him to changing the voting system?

Answer: No one on the Opposition Benches seems to understand that the politics of the last year has changed for ever the way the public view the House of Commons and our parliamentary institutions or that the status quo cannot last and has to be changed. If the Conservatives want to defend the hereditary principle in the House of Lords, if they want to postpone reform of the House of Lords for more than 10 years and if they want to refuse the people a referendum on the alternative vote, they are making a mistake about what the British people are thinking. My message today is to the British people: we are prepared to change our constitution—and to change it for the better. We are for the alternative vote; the Opposition are for the hereditary vote.

Secondary information