The Labour Government has announced plans to scrap First Past the Post for mayoral and PCC elections in England and we support this renewal of our democracy.
The latest British Social Attitudes survey shows that 60% of the British public now support proportional representation (PR)
There has never been a clearer need to change the First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system in Westminster too. 2024 was the most distorted election result on record, delivering the most unrepresentative UK Parliament in British history.
Most voters got neither the person they voted for as their local MP (58%), nor the party they backed in government (66%). When most people know their vote makes little difference, it undermines confidence in our political system and our democracy.
FPTP is producing unrepresentative results and is at crisis point. With politics more fragmented than ever, FPTP could hand power to any party – even an extreme party – on less than a third of the vote. This is unsustainable and dangerous.
We agree with Labour members, Constituency Labour Parties, trade unions, annual conference and the dozens of Labour MPs who support PR for general elections.
This branch resolves to:
- Reject First Past the Post and support the introduction of a form of Proportional Representation that maintains the constituency link and in which all votes count equally and seats match votes.
- Call for the Government to hold an independent Commission for Electoral Reform
- Call on our trade union to do both of the above.