The national commission on electoral reform has no time to waste
4 min read
In September in Liverpool, Andy Burnham announced a national commission on electoral reform to cheers from Labour MPs, delegates, and rank-and-file members.
Experts swiftly welcomed the move, including leading constitutional expert Sir Vernon Bogdanor. This is the first step to reforming our electoral system. The vast majority of the Labour movement agrees – this is how we underpin our plan for Britain: with a new politics.
The fact that our current political system clearly isn't serving the people hasn’t stopped a knee-jerk reaction from defenders of the status quo.
Liz Truss wasted no time in voicing her support for the famously stable First Past the Post (FPTP) system. As Andy said in his speech, he is the seventh PM in ten years, so any claim that FPTP brings stability rings more than a little hollow, especially coming from someone outlasted by a lettuce. International evidence shows Proportional Representation (PR) is far better equipped to deliver stable governments, with prime ministers on average serving 1.5 years longer in post – about 12 times as long as Truss was in Downing Street.
Defenders of FPTP should have the courage of their convictions and welcome proposals for the commission, developed by the APPG for Fair Elections. This independent review will start from first principles of what Westminster’s voting system should do in the 21st century. It will consider whether FPTP still fits the bill. I hope colleagues from across all parties will engage with the process in good faith.
It [the commission] must then get to work at the start of 2027, with its recommendations included in Labour’s next manifesto
Those who do engage in good faith with a review of our voting system must surely recognise that a party taking a majority of seats on less than 30 per cent of the vote is a very real possibility. Most developed democracies do not work like this. Governments must be able to command the confidence of a majority of the public. Governing on an ever-shrinking mandate undermines public trust, as well as the confidence of businesses and our international allies. It’s past time we looked at alternatives.
The public are significantly ahead of the Westminster commentariat on this: a majority support electoral reform, including a plurality of Reform and Conservative voters. Voters are sick of feeling ignored by adversarial point-scoring politics-as-usual. We need a system that changes the incentives for political parties and politicians. One that encourages us to campaign in all places, because every voter matters. One that rewards cooperation and long-term problem solving rather than fuelling division, outrage and polarisation.
Andy has been right to commit to action on this issue. In setting up a national commission on electoral reform, he will be demonstrating that he has seen and understood that the writing is on the wall for FPTP, as over 100 of my colleagues made clear when they signed my recent amendment calling for this.
I hope the commission’s core team will be finalised by the end of the year. It must then get to work at the start of 2027, with its recommendations included in Labour’s next manifesto, as Andy promised in Liverpool.
The APPG on Fair Elections – Parliament’s largest APPG – which I chair, last year published Terms of Reference which we hope could serve as a blueprint for how to take forward the commission. We stand ready to play our part in this historic endeavour, supporting the government in the vital work of refreshing and strengthening our democracy.
This is an antidote to some of Westminster’s worst tendencies. It is not about short-term party-political advantage or where the polls stand on any given week. It will be in the interests of all those we were sent to Parliament to represent – and who, in modern Britain, must know they will be served by governments that can be trusted to fairly represent a democratic majority of all people everywhere across the country.
Alex Sobel is the Labour for Leeds Central and Headingley
