At a time when fascism is gaining ground every day in the United States, genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza and protest is now not even permitted at the placard-holding level, it may seem that the electoral system is not the priority right now. But…

…Imagine that your vote counted at the next election even if you weren’t in the majority. Imagine most people having a sympathetic MP they could write to about things that mattered to them. Imagine MPs encouraged to represent the views they stood for election on to the full extent of their ability – no more having to sit in one or two buckets that aren’t really what they’re about because they are the only buckets that ever get elected. Imagine that all political parties win the proportion of seats they have earned as a result of their proportion of the vote, no more and no less. Imagine being able to vote for the party you prefer rather than needing to tactically vote to keep out your worst nightmare. All this could be yours.

At the last General Election on 4 July 2024, the Labour Party won 63.4% of the 650 seats in the House of Commons with 33.7% of the vote share. The 3rd and 5th parties in terms of votes, Reform UK and The Green Party collected 21% of the vote between them and only 9 seats, while the 4th party, The Liberal Democrats got 72 seats from 12.2% of the vote.

The Liberal Democrats, in particular, congratulated themselves hugely on how clever they had been in gaming the system (in fact they were about the only party where vote share and seat share were aligned), but the strategy of “where it managed to gain votes, and where it didn’t mind losing them” has given the Government a problem now. As Jonn Elledge has put it:

Last year the party won a lot of seats it would be unlikely to hold next time, even if things were going well; that reduces the chances the new intake believe they’ll be offered plum ministerial jobs one day, which gives them fewer incentives to act like lobby fodder.

Why would we continue to support a voting system that serves neither the governed nor those who seek to govern us?

There are currently several organisations lobbying for electoral change: the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), Make Votes Matter and Open Britain being the most high profile of these. ERS list 8 alternatives to first past the post (FPTP), while firmly nailing their colours to the single transferable vote (STV – explained in the video above) – a position I agree with. The other two are more focused on getting rid of FPTP: Open Britain sets replacing FPTP amongst a raft of measures included in a plan for functional democracy by 2030 but is not specific about which alternative it prefers; Make Votes Matter have signed up over 100 MPs to their campaign by not being specific about which voting system they prefer to replace FPTP.

I will explain why I think we should replace FPTP with STV and the benefits I think that would bring in my next post.