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The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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What we learnt from the ERS / Open Labour leadership hustings

Labour’s leadership candidates backed a range of constitutional reforms at Sunday’s joint Open Labour/Electoral Reform Society hustings, as they were challenged on how to fix Britain’s broken political system. When asked about their views on...

Posted 27 Jan 2020

Keir (Hardie) was a strong supporter of electoral reform

Labour, from its beginnings 100 years ago has promoted democratic reform. Keir Hardie was a supporter of the Electoral Reform Society (then called the Proportional Representation Society). Hardie, a leading Scottish socialist, helped found the...

Posted 24 Jan 2020

Italian far-right fail to bring in First Past the Post

On Thursday last week, Italy’s Constitutional Court rejected a request by the far-right League Party to hold a referendum to impose Westminster style First Past the Post (FPTP) for elections to both the Chamber of Deputies...

Posted 21 Jan 2020

How do Labour Party leadership elections work?

The Labour Party leadership election formally kicked off this week as nominations for the next leader of the party opened for MPs. The party have published a list of nominations as they come in, updating...

Posted 09 Jan 2020

Because of the AV system voters won’t need to vote tactically

9 things you need to know about the 2019 General Election

You probably heard a lot about the number of seats parties won (and lost) in December’s General Election. What was less prominent was just how poorly the results reflected how people actually voted. The ERS...

Posted 24 Dec 2019

A 1% increase in the Conservatives’ vote share led to a landslide

ERS in the Press: 2019’s electoral reform news roundup

As the year draws to a close, here’s a snapshot of some of the work we’ve been doing at the ERS to put real political reform on the agenda in 2019. January We kicked off...

Posted 23 Dec 2019

Thousands have signed our petition for proportional representation since the warped election

Over 50,000 people have signed the Electoral Reform Society’s petition calling for proportional representation for Westminster elections, after last week’s warped results. Thursday’s election set alarm bells ringing when the government won a large majority...

Posted 16 Dec 2019

14,513,247 voters didn’t vote for their MP

When millions of voters are systematically ignored, it’s time for an overhaul at Westminster

One thing was clear before a single result came in on Thursday night. The voting system is not just bust – it’s bankrupt. A huge amount of time was given this election to talk about...

Posted 16 Dec 2019

Westminster’s voting system is bankrupt. It’s time for proportional representation

Millions of voters unrepresented. An unjust majority on a minority of the vote. And nearly one in three forced to vote ‘tactically’. Westminster’s voting system is not just bust. It’s bankrupt, decrepit, discredited. We’ve been...

Posted 13 Dec 2019