Brown urges electoral reform
Updated on 01 October 2009
On the final day of Labour's 2009 party conference, the prime minister tells Jon Snow that he and the Labour party are committed to an alternative vote system of electoral reform.
Towards the end of his interview, Gordon Brown agrees with Jon Snow that he will be "passionately urging people to vote for electoral reform".
"The one thing this political crisis has show," the prime minister says, "is that if an MP has more than 50 per cent of the voters, the majority of voters supporting him or her, then I think that is a better position to be in.
"And the alternative vote system allows a member to be elected with the votes of second preferences allowing that person to have more than 50 per cent of the vote.
"That is something, you could see from the reaction in the Labour party, that most people are prepared to support."
Discussing British involvement in Afghanistan, Gordon Brown told Jon Snow: "What we're dealing with in Afghanistan is the potential threat of al-Qaida coming back to run Afghanistan."
"What has actually happened in the last few months is that the Taliban have realised they can't take on the British or any other of the coalition forces head-on.
"So what we've got, and what we're dealing with, is effectively guerrilla warfare."
On the domestic front, Gordon Brown said: "For a primary school and a hospital unit, of course we want greater efficiency and we want them to do better.
"But we want to maintain and improve these frontline services.
"We've come so far in improving education and improving our health service. We're not going to go backwards now."
And he addressed the possibility of prosecuting those involved in acts of criminal misconduct in relation to the banking crisis.
"If there are any cases - and I believe there are - that show this is the case, then there will be proper prosecutions."
