Gordon Brown has announced his plans for reform of the electoral system on the first full day of the election campaign.
Brown said that changes needed to be made to the way politics works after the MP's expenses scandal last year caused a "fundamental rupture" between Parliament and the people it represents.
The Prime Minister said that the key issues that Britain will need to deal with, will not be tackled unless "democracy is fully restored". He said that his plans would make MPs "more accountable to and fully representative of the ordinary men and women of this great country."
Brown said that under Labour plans for electoral reform, MPs would be banned from working for lobbying companies, prior approval from an independent body would be needed for MPs to take up outside employment and would give the public the right to recall MPs who were guilty of misconduct.
He also said that the public would be given the right to petition the House of Commons, to have issues discussed that are of public concern.
Brown announced that the Labour manifesto would include a commitment to the creation of a written constitution, to allow a free vote of MPs on the lowering of the voting age to 16 and a commitment to the creation of fixed term Parliaments. The Prime Minister said that following a Labour victory, a referendum on electoral reform would be held next August. He said that matters of voting reform and the establishment of an elected Upper House would be put to the public vote.
Brown criticised Conservative resistance to the removal of the heriditary principal from the House of Lords, saying that the party "likes to talk about change, but never delivers it".
He said that the country had been "through the turbulence of a global recession...and a political corosion that knew no party lines, but we weathered the storm. Britain was not broken." Summing up his commitment to electoral reform he said "our democracy belongs to you, not just at election times but all the time."
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