Andy Burnham is right to back proportional representation, and right not to tie it to another referendum. But he should go further. A national commission on electoral reform would be a major step forward. But if it is to command public trust, it should not look like politicians redesigning the system that elects them.

A citizen-led process would do something different. It would make electoral reform not just a policy promise, but the first act of a new democratic culture in Britain.

The history of voting reform is littered with near misses. Jenkins was shelved. AV, not PR, was defeated in 2011. Each attempt became trapped in party calculation, media framing and Westminster suspicion. Even when reformers won arguments, they lost the politics. That is why the process matters as much as the outcome.

This does not necessarily need to be called a citizens’ assembly. The phrase now carries baggage for some people, and risks sounding like another worthy exercise that politicians can praise and then ignore. The name matters less than the principle: ordinary people, drawn from across the country and the political spectrum, are given time, evidence and real political weight to deliberate on how our democracy should work. That means stratified random selection, independent facilitation, balanced expert evidence, transparent terms of reference and a clear parliamentary timetable.

This also matters because PR should not be framed only as a progressive cause. It is an issue of fairness. Every voter deserves to know that their voice counts, wherever they live and whichever party they support. A citizen-led approach would help make that case. It would take the design of a new voting system out of the hands of politicians and put it before the people who will use it.

That would not undermine the current push for reform. The campaign work around the Representation of the People Bill, the National Commission amendment, the PR private member’s bill and wider parliamentary efforts is important. It keeps democratic reform on the agenda and shows that momentum is building. But a citizen-led process would strengthen that campaign, not weaken it. It would give PR a public mandate that no party document or expert panel can provide on its own.

Ireland shows what deliberative democracy can do. Its citizen-led processes helped unlock difficult constitutional questions that party politics had failed to resolve alone, including equal marriage and abortion. But the lesson is not that citizens’ assemblies are magic. Recommendations can be diluted, delayed or ignored if politicians are not bound to the process.

That is why Burnham should make the link explicit. Any party serious about PR should commit in its manifesto to bringing forward legislation for a proportional system shaped by a properly designed citizen-led process, and to explain publicly if it departs from that process. The process without the pledge risks becoming another report. The pledge without the process risks looking like a stitch-up. Together, they close the legitimacy gap. The people design the route. The party seeks the mandate. Parliament delivers the change.

This is the stronger version of Burnham’s argument. If PR is meant to change political culture, then that cultural change should begin before a vote is cast under a new system. A citizen-led process would model the politics PR is supposed to create: less tribal, more patient, more plural and more rooted in the public.

It also fits Burnham’s story. His most persuasive claim is that Britain is too centralised, too governed from the top, too trapped in a Westminster mindset that leaves people feeling decisions are done to them, not with them. If he wants power to flow out of Whitehall, he should start with the way power is won in the first place.

And this need not stop at electoral reform. Once established, citizen-led processes could help break deadlock on Lords reform, devolution, social care and other questions that normal politics keeps postponing. That would be a legacy bigger than PR alone.

The prize is not only a fairer electoral system. It is a different relationship between people and power. Burnham has an opening to turn electoral reform from a constitutional fix into democratic renewal.