Today Keir Starmer announced he will be resigning as Prime Minister. It is hard to overstate how remarkable that is. His government won 63% of all MPs on just 34% of the vote in 2024, giving them huge control over our parliament, yet they still could not deliver steady leadership. Even with a 174 strong parliamentary majority, the churn at the top continues.
Keir Starmer’s resignation is the latest in a string of upheavals. In recent years, we have had David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak as prime ministers – now with Keir’s announcement – it means that in a few months we will be on our seventh prime minister in ten years. Leaders come, leaders go, and yet the fundamental design of our political system remains untouched, powering the churn.
What’s gone wrong isn’t personalities
It would be easy to blame individual leaders. Whilst that inevitably plays a part, the instability we are living through runs deeper than who occupies Number 10.
Our system of electing MPs, First Past the Post (FPTP), means that national outcomes often bear little relation to how people actually vote. In 2024, Labour’s 34% vote share translated into two-thirds of the seats. But that massive majority hasn’t lent stability, because stability comes from popular support.
A prime minister with a 174-seat majority may act like they are secure in their position, while an MP with a 174-vote majority will be constantly looking over their shoulder. The problem with first past the post is that one can be built out of the other. Narrowly winning everywhere can quickly turn to narrowly losing everywhere. It’s no surprise we have seen constant u-turns from Downing Street over the last two years.
When MPs and party machines know that a small shift in vote share can mean a huge change in seats, every whisper of trouble becomes an existential threat.
Insanity is doing the same thing expecting different results
Keir Starmer’s resignation should be a moment of reckoning. It is finally time to ask the tough questions about how we choose our leaders, and how we choose the system that chooses them.
Supporters of the status quo keep crying that first past the post produces strong and stable governments, denying the reality in front of their eyes. If we truly want stable, credible, trusted government, we need a voting system that reflects how people actually vote. That means moving beyond first past the post to something that is proportional, fair and built for the modern age. A representative parliament is the rock that can provide the foundation for successful government.
Keir Starmer himself said that “We’ve got to address the fact that millions of people vote in safe seats and they feel their vote doesn’t count”. If only he had taken his own advice.
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