Unlike the two Blackburn MPs she worked for, Janet Anderson was a keen advocate of electoral reform. In 1945 Barbara Castle had been the second candidate selected for a two-member constituency, an arrangement then abolished. Jack Straw favoured an alternative vote system, but Janet supported a more proportional approach.
She joined the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform before the 1992 general election and was elected along with other LCER sponsors – John Denham, Richard Burden and Anne Campbell. She spoke at our conference fringe meetings, and her husband, Jim Dowd, another former MP, also supported PR. They were ahead of their party, with the Labour conference backing PR only as recently as 2022.
