By Richard Wood
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has finally called the UK General Election, set for Thursday 4 July, after months of speculation.
Although polling points to Labour and the Lib Dem doing well, with the Conservatives and SNP on course for losses, the actual results are far from certain. One thing that’s clear though is that our voting system will lead to highly unrepresentative results.
Time and time again, First Past the Post leads to parliaments where seats don’t match votes. The Conservative won a majority of seats on just 36% of votes in 2015 while Labour won on just 35% in 2005.
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And while the SNP did extremely well in 2015, it’s unfair they won all but three Scottish seats on one in two votes while the Conservatives got zero Scottish seats in 1997.
There’s a simple solution to address this system failure. Adopting a proportional voting system will ensure fair votes and make First Past the Post history.
With Labour on course for a majority of seats on less than half the votes, we are set for yet another election where seats don’t match votes.
We deserve far better than this. Let’s make 2024 the last election held under First Past the Post.
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