Government to address voting system for Mayors & PCCs

Written By Joe Sousek

A bit of good news: yesterday, minister Jim McMahon confirmed that the government will address the voting system used for directly elected Mayors and Police & Crime Commissioners in an upcoming White Paper.

Until we have a fair voting system for UK general elections, we're at constant risk of handing the country back to the Tories, or worse, on a minority of the vote.

This announcement suggests a small step in the right direction and - more importantly - will create opportunities to engage with the government about First Past the Post in Westminster.

Mayoral and PCC elections always used to take place under the Supplementary Vote (SV) system, which allows voters to express a second preference and helps ensure candidates need broader support in their communities in order to win.

But in 2022, the Conservatives changed this to First Past the Post. As a direct result, in almost half the affected elections held in May this year, the winner was elected on less than 40% of the vote - and turnout was down by 5%.

Surprise, surprise... the change skewed the results in favour of the Tories. 19 out of the 20 winning Conservative candidates were elected with a minority of the vote. Analysis by Professor Alan Renwick of UCL's Constitution Unit revealed that the change to First Past the Post handed the Tories between four and twelve extra wins.

But the real damage done by First Past the Post comes about through our general elections: where millions can see their votes make no real difference and that Parliament doesn't reflect how the people voted.

As the new Labour MP for Macclesfield, Tim Roca, said in the House of Commons recently: "unfortunately too many are trapped in constituencies where their vote still doesn't count".

Tim wants to see the modest changes being brought forward by the government as part of a journey to "greater electoral reform" - and so do we. Setting up a review of the voting system - as called for by Andy Burnham at our conference fringe event - would be a good way to start.

We hope to see you at our final campaign update event of the year, at 18:00 on Wednesday 4 December. Save the date and sign up.

Joe Sousek

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