Will Labour back the reform of parliamentary elections next week?

Neal Lawson writes in the Guardian:

Next Wednesday, the representation of the people bill will come before parliament for its final stages. An amendment has been tabled to set up a national commission to look at which system of proportional representation (PR), which does match votes to seats, would best suit our country. It has huge backing in the Commons, in the Labour party and among the public. The prime minister, Andy Burnham, is also a longstanding supporter of electoral reform. The political conditions have never been more favourable to begin making changes to the voting system.

What, Lawson asks, could possibly go wrong? The answer, he rightly suggests, is the existence of: 

a minority but powerful view within the upper reaches of the Labour party, the cabinet and the party bureaucracy is vehemently opposed to PR and the plural politics of cooperation it demands. According to this tribal view, only Labour, governing alone, can represent the interests of "their voters". And so it is preferable to lose all power than to share it.

The remarkable thing is that many in the party cling to this view despite the fact that no Labour government has been motivated chiefly by representing the interests of working-class voters for 50 years.

So next Wednesday's vote is a chance to make progress towards the introduction of PR for Westminster elections. I wish I felt more confident that Labour will take it.