Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in an interview with the left-leaning magazine that US-style primary elections would give the public a greater say in choosing candidates, The Daily Telegraph reports.
According to BBC News Online, the Foreign Minister said: “The traditional political structures of mainstream political parties are dying and our biggest concern is the gap between our membership and our potential voter base.
“We need to expand our reach by building social alliances and increasing opportunity for engagement and interaction with our party,”
The Daily Telegraph says in the Tribune magazine article, the Foreign Minister praised both the Greek socialist party and the US democrats for the way they involved the wider electorate and not just party members in decision making.
He said Labour should consider introducing a system of registered voters, as in the US, where anyone who identifies with a political party could vote not just in a general election but in primary elections to choose the party's candidates.
However, critics say this could hasten the decline in party membership as those who pay subscription fees would have far fewer rights in return.
The latest party accounts figures, submitted to the Electoral Commission, shows Labour Party membership fell from a peak of 405,000 in 1997 to the ninth consecutive year of 166, 247 in 2008, according to BBC News Online.
Neal Lawson, Chairman of left-wing campaign group Compass, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that David Miliband, as one of those at the top of the Labour Party over the last 10 years, he was among those responsible for leading it “to its death” through measures like increased privatisation.
He said: “The revival of the Labour Party and the revival of British democracy will come from political parties that believe and have a vision of the good society and compete over that in fair and open democratic elections. That’s what we want to see,” BBC News Online reports.
David Miliband also advocates donating some of the money raised by Labour’s fundraisers to charities and voluntary groups as a way of rebuilding trust, says The Daily Telegraph.
The issue of introducing more “open primaries” to Britain was raised earlier this week when GP Dr Sarah Wollaston was named as the Conservatives’ next Parliamentary candidate for Totnes in Devon after 16,497 people voted in a selection process.
The Conservative Party said the turnout exceeded its “wildest expectations” but had cost £38,000.
The party had opened up selection meeting to non-members before, but this time had done a step further and sent all 69,000 Totnes voters a postal ballot.
In a traditional selection meeting only a few hundred party members will vote, according to BBC News Online.
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