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Labour MPs were among those using a debate in the House of Commons to pressure their own Government to reform Britain’s “flawed” and “undemocratic” voting system.
More than twenty members from both sides of the House lined up to condemn Britain’s First Past the Post system on Thursday, describing it as “unrepresentative”, and “outdated”, with just a handful of Conservatives speaking up in favour of the status quo.
Keir Starmer has previously backed reforming the UK’s electoral system, saying during his campaign to become Labour leader that “We’ve got to address the fact that millions of people vote in safe seats and they feel their vote doesn’t count”.
However, he has since abandoned his commitment, insisting that reform is “not our policy”.
The debate saw MPs attempt to push the Government to take “concrete first steps” towards electoral reform, with parliamentarians calling for a National Commission to be established to recommend a replacement to the current system.
Leading the debate, Alex Sobel MP (Labour and Cooperative), who chairs the APPG for Fair Elections, called First Past the Post: “A voting system that means millions of people’s votes don’t count. A voting system that most people don’t want to continue with… that’s why I urge the Government to take this first step, by establishing a National Commission for Electoral Reform.”
Labour MP Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green), noted that turnout at last year’s general election dropped below 60%, adding: “That means two in every five people didn’t even participate. Does this not show that actually we need to change that so more people engage in our democratic system?”
Lib Dem MP Lisa Smart MP said: “PR is already used in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in different forms, as well as in the vast majority of democracies worldwide. So why not here? Evidence shows that PR leads to higher voter turnout and more representative Governments.”
Speaking after the debate, Labour MP Sean Woodcock MP added: “Now more than ever we must strengthen British democracy. We need Proportional Representation for general elections, and a National Commission for Electoral Reform would be an excellent first step towards fairer elections.”
Recent polling by Survation found that two thirds (64%) of the public want the Government to address the flaws in the current voting system before the next general election. Earlier this month YouGov reported record support for changing to a proportional voting system (48%) — and the lowest support for maintaining First Past the Post (24%).
The Backbench Business Debate was proposed by members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections, a fast-growing group in Parliament. It follows a “historic” symbolic vote in favour of a pro-PR bill in December that won the support of 138 MPs, including 59 from the governing party, though it won’t proceed as the Government will not give it time.
Every MP in Britain was asked by constituents to attend Thursday’s debate, according to reform campaigners, with over 11,000 people writing to their local representative.
Campaigners say the 2024 General Election was the most distorted in British history, with Labour winning a landslide majority despite receiving just one in three votes; 21% of voters backed either Green Party and Reform UK, yet these parties won a combined 9 seats — or one per cent of MPs .
The APPG for Fair Elections argues that this is just the most recent example of a system that is becoming less representative over time and contributing to collapsing trust in politics in Britain.
A spokesperson for the Electoral Reform Society said: “For too long, First Past the Post has distorted democracy, and 2024 gave us the least representative parliament in British history. This means that the way the British public is represented in Westminster looks nothing like how people actually voted.
“Momentum for change is building, and we can’t let the discussion end there. MPs are finally starting to take notice…Our electoral system isn’t working. It’s time to make Westminster work for us.”
Mark Kieran, CEO of pro-PR group Open Britain said Thursday’s debate was a “resounding success” and “another clear sign that momentum is building across Parliament for a voting system shake-up, that MPs are increasingly coming around to the idea that we need fairer – and more proportional – elections.”
He added: “Increasingly, Parliamentarians can see the writing on the wall. Trust in politics is something that the Prime Minister and his party have repeatedly pledged to address, and First-Past-The-Post cannot be ignored as a key driver of the public’s disillusionment.
“We’ve never been closer [to reform], and the movement has never had this much momentum.”
The APPG for Fair Elections campaigns for “clean and fair elections where all votes count” by replacing First Past the Post with a proportional system that “makes seats match votes”, eliminating dark money and “undemocratic influence” from politics, and countering disinformation.
Conservative MP Paul Holmes was a rare voice against PR in the debate, saying the Government had already rejected proportional voting.
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Addressing a Labour MP, Holmes said: “We have already had an answer on that, so where can he go now? On 2 December 2024, when asked by the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover), the Deputy Prime Minister said that this Government would not set up a national commission and would not examine proportional representation any further. What does [he] propose to do to make the Government change their mind?”
Conservative Harriet Cross MP added: “The current system gives us accountability to our constituents within the defined area of our constituency.”
At the 2024 General Election, 58% of people who turned out to vote ended up with a local MP they didn’t vote for and 15% of MPs were elected with more than 50% of the vote. By contrast, 266 MPs (41%) were elected with less than a 40% voteshare, according to FairVote.
It took 24,000 votes to elect each Labour MP, compared to 56,000 votes to elect each Conservative. Meanwhile, it took 486,000 votes to elect each Green MP, and 824,000 votes to elect each Reform UK MP.
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