The Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election, scheduled for Thursday 26 February, has garnered much media attention. The outcome will be closely scrutinised by commentators for what it might mean for various political parties and leaders.
However, something that should be receiving more attention is how our First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system is letting down those who matter the most in this election – the people of Gorton and Denton, who will be choosing the person they want to represent them in the House of Commons.
The UK general election of 2024 was the most disproportional ever, with Labour securing almost two-thirds of MPs, from just over one-third of votes. Since then, it has become ever clearer that in our era of multi-party politics, First Past The Post is a broken system that cannot cope with how people are expressing their democratic preferences.
Where three or more parties are in contention, we are increasingly seeing candidates elected with the support of fewer than a third of voters in their area, meaning the votes of more than two-thirds of people are simply ignored. With Labour, the Green Party and Reform UK all fighting this by-election very strongly, it is highly plausible that the ballots of a majority of voters will be ignored in this way.
It’s a two-horse race! But who are the horses?
Another major drawback for voters is that when multi-party contests are forced through a FPTP system, the debate becomes dominated by tactical questions around which parties have a genuine chance of winning or which party is best placed to stop another party from winning. This is exactly what has happened in Gorton and Denton, with both Labour and the Green Party trying to persuade voters that they are the only option for people who want to ‘stop Reform’.
This kind of election campaign shortchanges voters. People deserve the chance to listen to the policies that parties are putting forward, listen to how candidates say they intend to represent their area and then make positive choices accordingly. They should not have to make tactical judgements about which parties might or might not be placed to beat another party that they might really dislike.
And although in this by-election the tactical voting argument is mainly playing out on one side of the political spectrum, at the next general election there will be many constituencies where the Conservatives and Reform UK will be trying to persuade voters that they are the ‘only’ choice for those who may want to ‘stop Labour’ or another party in their area.
Because First Past the Post is not designed with more than two candidates in mind, it encourages parties to engage in this type of campaigning to work around the flaws in the system. This does not reflect a democracy in good health.
Designing a better solution
Scottish local elections are conducted under the Single Transferable Vote (STV), a form of Proportional Representation where you number the candidates on the ballot paper. When local council by-elections arise in Scotland, voters can put the candidate they genuinely want to win as their number one, safe in the knowledge that their vote can be transferred to the candidate they put in number two, if their first-choice has no chance of being elected and no candidate has received a majority of votes (this continues until someone wins a majority).
Rather than having to work out who is best placed to defeat the party you hate, you just put down your preferences and the system does the hard work for you. This ‘preferential voting’ removes the prospect of ‘splitting the vote’ and letting in a party the voter really dislikes.
With proportional representation you can make a positive choice
Proportional representation allows people to vote positively, safe in the knowledge that there is a much higher chance that their vote will translate into representation in parliament. Proportional representation also significantly reduces the need for voters to take into account tactical considerations and allows them to focus more on who they would genuinely prefer to see elected.
It is time we got rid of the outdated First Past the Post system, so that voters in all elections across the UK can focus fully on who they would like to win, without worrying about tactical considerations.
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