{"id":1733,"date":"2026-09-17T15:28:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/09\/17\/electoral-reform-is-back-on-the-agenda-heres-why-things-could-genuinely-be-different-this-time\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:28:38","slug":"electoral-reform-is-back-on-the-agenda-heres-why-things-could-genuinely-be-different-this-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/09\/17\/electoral-reform-is-back-on-the-agenda-heres-why-things-could-genuinely-be-different-this-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Electoral reform is back on the agenda \u2013 here\u2019s why things could genuinely be different this time"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> Euan Cherry\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Electoral reform is a perennial debate in UK politics. But it never comes to fruition \u2013 arguably because it\u2019s never in the interests of the governing party to change the voting rules that got it into power. Now though, there are reasons to believe things could be about to change.<\/p>\n

Labour<\/a> won the 2024 general election by a landslide in the most disproportionate election ever<\/a>, securing nearly two thirds of seats with only a third of the vote. Yet support for the party now sits at just 24%<\/a>, placing it almost level with Reform UK in vote intention polls. <\/p>\n

That makes another majority markedly more difficult to achieve, even under the UK\u2019s winner-takes-all voting system of first past the post.<\/p>\n

There are now at least five competitive parties UK-wide, in a Westminster system that produces only one winner per seat. This can have important representational consequences. In the constituency of South West Norfolk<\/a>, for example, the Labour MP Terry Jermy won in 2024 with 26.7% of the vote. This means that constituents are represented by a politician on the left, even though Conservative and Reform voting made up 48% of the vote there. <\/p>\n

Across the country, Labour doubled its seat share in 2024 based on just a 1.6-point increase<\/a> in its vote share. This, among other criticisms, has sparked renewed questions about the fairness of the electoral rules.<\/p>\n

And public support for electoral reform has now hit record highs<\/a>. Some 60% of respondents<\/a> in the 2024 British Social Attitudes survey favoured changing the system for Westminster elections. <\/p>\n

In 2011, the UK held a referendum on moving to the \u201calternative vote\u201d system<\/a>. The result was 68% against the change, 32% for \u2013 though turnout was low, with just 42% of eligible voters casting ballots. Back then, public attitudes polling found support for any kind of electoral reform stood at just 27%.<\/p>\n

Backed by Burnham<\/h2>\n

Prime Minister Andy Burnham is a strong supporter of electoral reform. The former mayor of Greater Manchester stood for that office under its supplementary voting (SV) system, where voters can express a first and second preference. Under this system, if no candidate wins more than 50% then the second-preference votes come into play. Burnham has said it made him favour a more collaborative style of politics<\/a>, where candidates must build broad coalitions of support. <\/p>\n

And in his first speech as prime minister, he outlined his commitment to delivering a \u201cnew political model\u201d<\/a> for the UK. He said this would be more about \u201cproblem-solving than point-scoring\u201d \u2013 implementing a more proportional voting system could be part of this.<\/p>\n

Burnham also faces increasing political pressure \u2013 from both within and beyond his party. In 2022, Labour conference delegates overwhelmingly backed a motion<\/a> calling for the party leadership to implement proportional representation (PR) at Westminster elections. <\/p>\n

Since then, almost 100 Labour MPs have backed a national commission<\/a> on electoral reform. And more broadly, in their 2024 manifestos, the Liberal Democrats, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru all included commitments to moving away from first past the post. Even Reform called for a referendum on implementing PR (though its support for electoral reform has waned<\/a> as its performance in the polls has improved).<\/p>\n

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Despite clear public and cross-party support for something new, there is little consensus about how a replacement system might look. Could the UK adopt the additional member system (AMS) used in Scottish Parliament and London Assembly elections? This would involve voters having two ballots, one for a local MP chosen in the traditional way, and one for a party. \u201cAdditional members\u201d are taken from pre-published party lists to ensure the composition of parliament matches how the country voted<\/a> on the second ballot.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps there could be a simpler system like the SV rules. Or a party-list proportional representation system, like that used in elections to the Senedd in Wales since May this year. Here, constituencies represent bigger areas and each elects multiple candidates, with each party winning seats roughly in proportion<\/a> to its share of the vote.<\/p>\n

The decision is not trivial. Voters and parties behave differently under different electoral rules because their incentives and punishments function differently.<\/p>\n

The choice may depend on the goal. If the aim is just to reduce disproportionality and wasted votes, the SV system \u2013 more a preferential system<\/a> than a form of PR \u2013 means candidates typically need a higher vote share to win. They can still govern with a minority, but the preference function not only means that more people will vote for the winner but that sincere preferences can be expressed alongside tactical ones.<\/p>\n

If eliminating disproportionality and enhancing representation is the goal, PR systems like the additional member system and \u201clist-based\u201d methods can allow smaller parties to enter parliament and prevent situations where a majority is governed by a single party it did not vote for. They almost always result in parties governing in coalition.<\/p>\n

But proportional systems are not a silver bullet. While they counter first past the post\u2019s proportionality problem, and solve some of its issues with representation, they can also create challenges. Larger constituencies with multiple members can mean the valuable local connection is lost.<\/p>\n

Whatever its shortcomings, first past the post tends to produce a clearer \u2013 and quicker \u2013 result than other systems.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Multi-party governance makes it harder for voters to know who to blame or reward and can keep less popular parties in power through coalitions. They can also cause deadlock when parties don\u2019t agree or won\u2019t share power, and can mean that manifesto commitments are dropped or watered down. Elections see parties competing one day then bargaining the next. Forming a government can take weeks or months.<\/p>\n

Some would argue that in recent decades first past the post hasn\u2019t been delivering the stability it is supposed to offer. But changing the electoral system could mean a radical culture change. Citizens will need a degree of voter education and parties will have to learn how to engage in a less combative politics.<\/p>\n

Burnham and his party say they need to present voters with proposals for reform<\/a> in Labour\u2019s next general election manifesto. However, they face pressure to make changes within Burnham\u2019s first 100 days, and certainly ahead of a general election<\/a>. First past the post could easily push Labour out of office. So if it isn\u2019t going to change the rules under these circumstances, perhaps no government ever will.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Hannah Bunting receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Lizzie Simon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Euan Cherry\/Shutterstock Electoral reform is a perennial debate in UK politics. But it never comes to fruition \u2013 arguably because it\u2019s never in the interests of the governing party to change the voting rules that got it into power. Now though, there are reasons to believe things could be about to change. Labour won the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}