Articles by Ian Simpson

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Ian Simpson, Senior Research Officer

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First past the post distorts public opinion on small boats

Last week’s YouGov MRP poll showing Labour on course for a 1997-style general election victory created a big splash. In addition to asking about people’s general election voting intention, YouGov asked respondents about their views...

Posted 22 Jan 2024

Across the UK opinion is evenly divided on the issue of right of appeal

The Non-Battleground Election: Millions of voters are ignored

Last week, the Labour Party started the process of selecting their general election candidates for 211 ‘non-battleground’ constituencies in England. The description of these seats as being ‘non-battleground’ is telling, implying that Labour will not...

Posted 18 Dec 2023

Around 400 seats will see very little, if any, local campaigning from either of the two major UK parties

How proportional representation worked in the Polish election

With a population of around 40 million, Poland is the European Union’s fifth largest member and by far the largest of its eastern states. It is therefore worth taking notice of any national election in...

Posted 26 Oct 2023

Latest by-elections reveal flaws of First Past the Post

The two UK parliamentary by-elections, held on 19 October 2023, saw some dramatic outcomes. In Mid Bedfordshire, Labour overturned the biggest majority (24,664) in any by-election since at least 1945. In Tamworth, Labour achieved its...

Posted 20 Oct 2023

Electoral Commission estimate 8 million missing from electoral roll

This week, the Electoral Commission published a report highlighting how millions of people are missing from Britain’s electoral registers. The report details how up to 8 million people are not correctly registered and are at...

Posted 21 Sep 2023

We need UK-wide automatic voter registration

Elections Cancelled: 90,000 denied any say in local elections

Following the publication of candidate notices for the May 2023 English local elections, it is clear that the scourge of uncontested and guaranteed seats will once again limit the democratic choices of hundreds of thousands...

Posted 02 May 2023

Forty-six councillors will be elected without a single vote being cast

Long running survey finds majority support proportional representation

The publication of the latest findings from the long-running British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey this week saw a record-breaking high in public support for electoral reform. Since 1983, the following question has been included on...

Posted 23 Sep 2022

Only 44 percent want to retain the current electoral system

How did New Zealand get proportional representation?

Prior to 1996, MPs were elected to New Zealand’s House of Representatives using the same unrepresentative First Past The Post (FPTP) system that is used to elect MPs to the UK’s House of Commons. Since...

Posted 02 Aug 2022

New Zealand’s journey provides lessons for the UK

Why England needs the Single Transferable Vote

In May 2022, local elections will take place throughout Scotland and Wales, as well as in many parts of England, including the election of all local councillors in Greater London. In Scotland, these will be...

Posted 07 Apr 2022

For too long England has lagged behind on progress towards fairer votes

How do Westminster election results compare to those of devolved institutions?

This May, the sixth set of elections took place for each of the devolved institutions in the nations of Britain – the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) and the London Assembly. It was a...

Posted 20 Aug 2021