Electoral reform Labour divided over case for change to voting system

The vote at Labour conference was passed overwhelmingly and to loud cheers: the party should ditch the first past the post electoral system in favour of proportional representation. So what happens next? Almost certainly nothing - at least for now.

- Patrick Wintour

When it comes to electoral reform, Labour is politely but completely divided. The members are hugely keen, with 140 local parties submitting the motion that was passed in 2022. The leadership could barely be less interested.

And even though FPTP has just delivered Keir Starmer a big Commons majority, some in the party wonder whether the relatively shaky foundations of this mighty victory necessitate a rethink on electoral reform, if not immediately then before too long.

Sandy Martin, a former MP who now chairs the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform, said thinking about a move to PR "should be a priority" for the party, despite the way it benefited so handsomely from the current system.

"It would only take Reform and the Conservatives to unite and they might have a majority on the same scale we had this year," he said. "But under PR, Labour would most likely be able to form a government quite comfortably with the Liberal Democrats or the Greens, and this would be preferable to a ConservativeReform government."

As well as self-interest, Martin said, FPTP felt increasingly inappropriate when only 58% of votes went to the two main parties: "In England we now have five parties, and in Scotland and Wales you have six. You can't run a first past the post system - where one party is basically trying to beat the other party - when you've got five or six parties to play with."