division_name: Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill
motion: <p class="" pid="b.34.3/1" pwmotiontext="yes">I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.</p>
  
  <p class="" pid="b.34.3/2" pwmotiontext="yes">Before turning to the Bill, I am aware that since we last met, <phrase class="honfriend" id="uk.org.publicwhip/member/40090" name="Jack Straw">the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw)</phrase> has announced that he will be stepping back from front-line politics when the new leader of the Labour party is finally elected. I am sure that I speak on behalf of everybody when I say that I wish him, in advance, a happy semi-retirement on the Back Benches. I hope that he agrees that Second Reading of this Bill and Second Reading of the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill next week is a fitting finale or curtain call for him, given his lifelong interest and expertise in constitutional matters, which we hope he will continue to draw upon from the Back Benches.</p>
  
  <p class="" pid="b.44.5/1" pwmotiontext="yes">I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from "That" to the end of the Question and add:</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b.44.5/2" pwmotiontext="yes">"this House, whilst affirming its belief that there should be a referendum on moving to the Alternative Vote system for elections to the House of Commons, declines to give a Second Reading to the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill because it combines that objective with entirely unrelated provisions designed to gerrymander constituencies by imposing a top-down, hasty and undemocratic review of boundaries, the effect of which would be to exclude millions of eligible but unregistered voters from the calculation of the electoral average and to deprive local communities of their long-established right to trigger open and transparent public inquiries into the recommendations of a Boundary Commission, thereby destroying a bi-partisan system of drawing boundaries which has been the envy of countries across the world; and is strongly of the opinion that the publication of such a Bill should have been preceded by a full process of pre-legislative scrutiny of a draft Bill."</p>
  
  <p pid="b.129.2/1" pwmotiontext="yes"><i> Question put, </i>That the amendment be made.</p>
  
  <p pid="b.129.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes"><i> The House divided:</i> Ayes 254, Noes 347.</p>