Why are our mayors winning on less than 30% of the vote?This past week’s mayoral elections marked a worrying milestone for democracy in England. For the first time ever, two combined authority mayors have been elected on less than 30% of the vote – with one...Posted 07 May 2025
Rishi Sunak’s resignation peerages will do nothing to help collapsing trust in politicsTen months after the last government ended, it is still able to stuff yet more peers into the grossly oversized House of Lords. On Friday, Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list was published, ennobling seven Conservative...Posted 15 Apr 2025
A System Out of Step – New report on the 2024 General ElectionToday we have published our in-depth report on the 2024 General Election, A System Out of Step. The General Election in 2024 was not only the most disproportional election in British electoral history, but one...Posted 10 Dec 2024
King’s Speech signals first moves on Lords and electoral reformThe first King’s Speech of any new government is a significant political moment. Amid the ostentation and pomp of the ceremony, the government lays out in detail the plans for its legislation in the new...Posted 24 Jul 2024
The only bias in the electoral system should be towards the votersIn the days since the election, I have been touring TV and radio studios making the case for proportional representation and talking about how First Past the Post is failing millions of voters. The fact...Posted 08 Jul 2024
Over one million people at risk of not having voter ID on election dayNew figures show that there have been only 57,000 new applications for Voter Authority Certificates (VACs) meaning over a million voters risk not having an accepted form of ID on July 4th. Voting is a fundamental...Posted 01 Jul 2024
New polling finds three quarters of public say politics needs to improve significantlyLast week we had extremely concerning news about the state of our democracy. A significant study by the National Centre for Social Research found more people ‘than ever before’ ‘almost never’ trust the British government...Posted 20 Jun 2024
Labour manifesto: Encouraging first steps – but we need to address rock bottom trust in politicsThis week we had startling and deeply concerning news about the state of our democracy. A study from the National Centre for Social Research concluded that: ‘All in all, it appears that people’s trust in...Posted 13 Jun 2024
Conservative manifesto: Missing pledges to improve our democracyThe launch of the Conservative manifesto yesterday was conspicuously light on democratic policy with little mention by way of reforms desperately needed to strengthen our democracy. Voter ID Policy The Conservatives made only one proposal...Posted 13 Jun 2024
Four steps to protect our elections from AI interferenceI recently co-signed a letter with a host of leading third-sector organisations, as well as consumer champion Martin Lewis and Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, calling on political parties to agree a set of guidelines and...Posted 09 May 2024