THE time’s right for a new voting system so that everyone’s voice can be heard.
Over 200 years our society and democracy have developed and changed but our voting system has failed to keep pace.

Britain uses the first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system for general elections, the only country in Europe using this system, apart from Belarus). This results in governments that have received a higher number of votes than other parties, but not a majority of all the votes.

At the 2024 election, Labour won a huge majority of seats in parliament with just 33.7 per cent of the vote.

Minority rule

The FPTP system means that parliament does not reflect the way we vote. Millions of people’s voices are not represented.

In the 2024 general election the Green Party, Reform UK and the Scottish National Party received more than 23 per cent (6.7million) of votes between them, yet they shared just 2.7 per cent of seats.

We see examples of councillors being elected with less than 20 per cent of the vote; mayors with as little as 25 per cent of the vote.

What’s the point?

The 2024 election saw the second lowest voter turnout since universal suffrage in 1928 with only 59.9 per cent of people turning out to vote.

Historically turnout was over 70 per cent until the 2001 election where it tumbled 12 percentage points from the 1997 figure of 71.3 per cent.

From there it began to slowly creep back up but it has not reached 70 per cent figure in over a quarter of a century.

Too often people interviewed say that there is no point in voting because the same parties always win, or their vote is wasted.

With trust at an all time low in our politics, our voting system is making things worse.

Time for change

Public support for changing the electoral system is at an all-time high. The recent British Social Attitudes Survey found that 60 per cent of people would support change.

The government is introducing voting for 16-and 17-year-olds in 2029, but whether they will choose to do so, if they do not feel their votes count, is questionable.

The current system forces some people to vote tactically, to elect the “least worst” candidate rather than their preferred person. Those that want to vote for smaller parties see their views ignored and their votes wasted repeatedly. If you live in a “safe seat”, where the same party wins every time, it feels pointless, and your voice is not heard.

Camden residents will know this feeling.

• Cath Attlee worked in health and social care and campaigns on peace, the environment and electoral reform and is on the executive of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

• For more information on PR see: https://electoral-reform.org.uk
and https://makevotesmatter.org.uk