SIR – The Prime Minister has declared he wants to hold a referendum next year on whether MPs should be elected through an ‘alternative vote’ system, whereby candidates would be ranked by voters.

Call me cynical, but I remember when I stood for election in 2005, Labour guaranteed that if elected they would offer the people a referendum on the EU.

This did not happen as all parties have proved since, through their refusal to stand by their pledge of a referendum, that they do not like referenda as they are afraid of the will of the people. We need a new voting system; we need to look to a system of proportional representation – the policy that the Lib-Dems used to support until they became assimilated into the undemocratic EU.

The only way we can engage people in politics is to ensure that their vote and every vote counts. We saw what happens with PR in the Euro elections where a grass roots party received more votes than the Government! The call for an alternate voting system is clearly a ‘PR’ stunt by the Government.

Jason Smith, UKIP Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Bradford West, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury, Bradford