The time has come for electoral reform
4 min read
“PR’s time has definitely come – because I think the world we are in now demands a new politics. It demands a new approach.” That was Andy Burnham speaking at Labour Party Conference almost a year ago.
Listening and waiting to speak alongside him in support of electoral reform, I couldn’t agree more: we are at a turning point, and Labour must deliver change before the crunch.
The British public's trust in democracy is at record lows, with just 12 per cent trusting political parties to put the country first. The UK lags far behind most of our European counterparts – almost all of whom use Proportional Representation (PR) – when it comes to public trust in government. Meanwhile, New Zealand, which switched to PR in the 1990s, has weathered the increasingly dangerous headwinds facing democracies around the world, and now ranks the highest. Across the Atlantic, the USA’s use of First Past the Post (FPTP) offers a vision of the politics we might face if we don’t act now to safeguard our democracy.
If democracy is a problem-solving vehicle, then FPTP is increasingly starting to seem like sand in the engine.
In Westminster, the outdated system has contributed to the instability that has defined our politics in recent years. That should come as no surprise given that, on average, governments last 11 years in countries that use PR and just 7 years in those that use FPTP, Make Votes Matter analysis shows. Prime ministers and ministers also last longer under proportional systems. Simply put, the most stable democracies use PR.
That matters for our policy-making, too. Our country currently faces a multitude of seismic challenges, yet FPTP's instability makes long-term responses harder. At the same time, the adversarial nature of our winner-takes-all system makes cross-party agreement seem unusual, rather than something to champion. When governments are unable to deliver long-term projects, and businesses lack confidence about the direction of future governments, we all suffer.
It is notable that even some Conservatives such as former prime minister John Major have begun to recognise that FPTP is no longer sustainable.
It is increasingly difficult to avoid the same conclusion when you consider that with every election under FPTP, more and more people are being shut out. In the 1950s, Labour and the Conservatives combined won over 95 per cent of the vote. In 2024, that number was just 58 per cent. Regardless of which parties lead the race, the long-term trend is the same: we are moving towards a multi-party democracy. Electoral reform is now both necessary and inevitable. But what we can control is how we get there.
There are also widespread warnings from academic experts in politics and constitutional law that this system is not sustainable, with over 50 of them writing an open letter to the government earlier this year and Hannah White of the Institute for Government think tank warning: "If casting a vote starts to feel more like participating in a lottery than making a positive and principled decision, then voters are going to become ever more frustrated. This is dangerous."
The public is ahead of Westminster on this. Fifty-three per cent of people now support electoral reform, up from 27 per cent in 2011. Across Labour, there is widespread support for change. A majority of MPs support setting up a National Commission on Electoral Reform, and I’m proud to be among the almost 100 Labour MPs who have signed Alex Sobel’s amendment to the Representation of the People Bill calling for one.
A National Commission would first examine options for introducing proportional representation to the UK. Then it would recommend a system most suitable for Westminster that both retains a constituency link as a key component for trust and accountability, and protects us from extremism in political discourse. Here we can learn from the modern parliaments Labour has established across the UK. We already use the Additional Member System in London and Scotland, and the Single Transferable Vote in Northern Ireland.
We must not delay. The country needs a political system capable of restoring public trust, boosting business confidence and facing off the threats facing democracies around the world. The Labour movement, which overwhelmingly supports PR, needs to know it can trust its leaders to keep their word.
I hope the Prime Minister will lead this change and change politics for good by launching a National Commission on Electoral Reform within his first 100 days.
Rachel Blake is the Labour MP for Cities of London and Westminster
