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Cross-party campaigners have thrown their weight behind 30 parliamentary candidates in Conservative-held seats, who support replacing Westminster’s winner-takes-all voting system with proportional representation (PR).
The cross-party group Compass and its Win As One campaign aims to “channel support” to the candidates through its network of autonomous grassroots groups to help them unseat the Tories and “kickstart a democratic renewal of our country – starting with changing our voting system.”
The list (shared in full below) includes 11 candidates from Labour, 17 from the Liberal Democrats and two from the Green Party, all of whom have given written confirmation of their support for PR.
There are 30 active Compass local groups in England & Wales, “several” of which have secured these endorsements by working with parties locally and analysing the data to determine which parties are best-placed to beat the Conservatives in certain seats, a spokesperson for the group said.
Key target seats include Godalming & Ash (Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s constituency), Wycombe (right-winger Steve Baker’s constituency) and North East Somerset (GB News host and former Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg’s constituency).
Local Compass groups will show their support for endorsed candidates with tactics including in-person campaign events, including US-style ‘barnstorms’ (speaking tours in lots of small communities), Facebook ads, street stalls, leaflet drops, phone-banking and door knocking.
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The membership organisation says it’s committed to supporting candidates who want to replace First Past the Post voting (FPTP) with PR, noting: “Our current voting system stifles productive debate, promotes short-termism, tribalism and timidity, and blocks us from pressing ahead with the bold and transformative solutions that our age of permacrisis demands.”
Compass argues that FPTP pushes Labour towards a “narrow route to office” that panders to party donors and media barons, as well as the views of a small number of swing voters in a few swing seats.
Targeting a small number of swing seats this way while ignoring core Labour voting areas “discourag[es] Labour from taking radical and desperately needed action on inequality, climate and public services,” according to the progressive campaign. That in turn fuels voter cynicism that the parties are “all the same” and that “voting is pointless”.
Compass is aiming to “galvanise the progressive vote” in the UK by uniting people from all parts of the country behind a pluralistic vision for the country’s future.
The ultimate goal is to enact PR to ensure to stop majority Governments being elected on a minority of the vote – most of which have been Conservative, as the right-wing vote has traditionally been less “split” than that of the left (something that may change this time with a high Reform UK vote).
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Candidates who back Compass’ pledge for change are likely to become “part of a substantial PR crossparty caucus in the next Parliament.”
A spokesperson for Compass said: “We desperately need to get rid of the Tories on July 4th. But this election isn’t just about winning office – it’s about winning a mandate for the change this country desperately needs.
“This change is as much about how people win power as what they do with it when they get there. We’re looking forward to welcoming, for the first time, a strong, cross-party caucus of pro-democracy candidates into Parliament who have recognised that only by changing the system will we change the country for the future.”
At least four of the seats chosen by Compass members could prove controversial. In Suffolk Coastal, the group recommends a vote for the Liberal Democrats. But three of seven election models predict it could swing to Labour, compared to four predicting a Conservative hold and none predicting a Conservative win.
However, Suffolk Compass activists will argue that Lib Dem Julia Ewart has enthusiastically backed PR, and it is not officially a Labour “battleground” target seat. Local Labour activists have been encouraged to campaign in nearby Ipswich or Lowestoft.
In Waveney Valley (also in Suffolk), Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay is attempting to unseat Conse