Scrap the Westminster whipping system | Letters

Martin Luck and Vaughan Thomas respond to suggestions that Andy Burnham could reduce the use of whipping in parliament

You suggest Andy Burnham might reduce the extent of whipping of parliamentary votes (What will ‘change’ look like if Andy Burnham becomes prime minister? 19 June).

I have long thought that whipping should apply only to matters clearly spelled out in a party’s manifesto. After all, that is what non-independent candidates stood on when they were elected. Votes on other matters should be free, with the party free to persuade its MPs by appealing to strategy and force of argument.