Exit poll: First Past the Post is utterly broken
If the exit poll is right, the election result is a huge, welcome relief after fourteen years of Tory failure. For everyone who relies on our public services, believes politics can be a force for good, and knows it’s time for change - this is a great day.
🗳️ If the #ExitPoll is right, this is a huge relief after 14 years of Tory failure
— LCER (@Labour4PR) July 4, 2024
🌹 Labour now has the mammoth task of putting the UK back on course - & @Keir_Starmer is clear this depends on restoring trust in politics
🚫 This can’t happen under First Past the Post
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Congratulations to everyone who campaigned to make it happen.
Labour now has the mammoth task of putting the country back on course. Starmer has been clear that doing this depends on restoring trust in politics - and it’s clearer than ever this won’t happen for as long as we have a broken voting system.
This election has shattered any illusion that the House of Commons fairly represents Britain’s voters - millions of people know the votes they’ve just cast made no difference.
🪄 This election has shattered any illusion that the House of Commons fairly represents Britain’s voters
— LCER (@Labour4PR) July 4, 2024
💢 Millions of people know the votes they’ve just cast made no difference
📈 Labour looks to have won a record majority of seats on around 40% of the vote
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Labour looks to have won a record majority of seats on around 40% of the vote. Meanwhile it looks like around one in five people voted for either the Greens or Reform - that could by 6 million votes. Yet these parties are set to share just a handful of MPs between them, if that.
📊 Meanwhile, it looks like around one in five people voted for either @TheGreenParty or @reformparty_uk
— LCER (@Labour4PR) July 4, 2024
‼️ That could be more than 6 million votes
🤏 Yet these parties are set to share just a handful of MPs between them, if that!
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What we are seeing play out on our TV screens is a political system in crisis. Trust in politics has collapsed, turnout is worryingly low, and the far right is on the rise. Nigel Farage’s whole political project is about stirring up division and disillusion amongst people who feel ignored by politics - and nothing strengthens his hand more than a voting system that denies millions of people a voice.
Starmer must rise to the moment. This is too serious an issue for Labour to put its short term party interests before those of the country. This begins by treating all voters with the respect they deserve. The country needs a fair, proportional system so everyone has a vote that counts.
Labour now has the power to begin delivering the national renewal Britain needs, but unless we change the voting system there’s nothing to stop this all being undone by another right wing government - elected on a minority of the vote - in a few years time. Labour must use the power it now has to bring in a fair system - so that the progress it makes in government lasts beyond the next election.
