Dozens of Labour MPs call for proportional representation

The results in England earlier this month showed that the country has emphatically moved from a two-party system to a multi-party system.

In Bradford, five parties have nine councillors or more, while in Leeds there are nine parties represented on the council.

The current first-past-the-post voting system, for general elections and local elections in England, sees the candidate with the most votes win outright, with no consideration of how the vote is split.

This can produce uneven results when more than two parties are competing, such as in the last general election when Labour won 63 per cent of the MPs with 34 per cent of the vote, while Reform won 0.8 per cent of MPs with 14 per cent of the overall vote.

Previously, Reform, the Lib Dems and the Greens have called for changes to make the system more proportional, however now Labour MPs are calling for change as well.

Shipley MP Anna Dixon told The Yorkshire Post: “These election results showed that two-party politics is dead.

“That affected the results in Bradford, with Reform taking the most seats while only winning 23 per cent of the popular vote.

“It’s very unrepresentative at local government level, and if that was repeated at a general election Reform could take a majority of seats in Parliament on 20 per cent or 25 per cent of the vote.

“Don’t just take it from me, Sir John Curtice, a long-standing expert on elections, has said this … this is something I really worry about.”

Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel has tabled an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, calling for a national commission on electoral reform.

He said: “The Prime Minister in his reset speech said 'a return to the status quo would not be enough for people'.

"First-past-the-post is one of the biggest examples of a broken status quo in UK politics.

"A very modest part of any reset would be to accept and announce a National Commission for Electoral Reform."

Sir Keir Starmer previously committed to electoral reform when he won the Labour leadership in 2020, however this was not included in the party’s last manifesto.

He greatly benefited from the first-past-the-post system in the last general election to win a huge majority in the House of Commons.

Nancy Platts, co-ordinator of the Politics For The Many campaign, said: “It is clear that we cannot continue with a voting system that ignores millions of votes and is producing more and more chaotic results that do not represent the way people have voted.”

Potential Labour leadership challenger Andy Burnham said he would pledge to change the voting system in the party’s next manifesto.

Speaking to reporters after his campaign launch last week, he said: “I support electoral reform.

“Now, I know there’s different ways you can do it, but I believe any move in that direction is going to be good and I would want a commitment in the next Labour manifesto to introduce a proportional system.”

He ruled out changing the system before the next election, saying: “I think you’ve got to honour manifestos.”