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The Sun reported on rumours that Paul Scully MP, was considering running as an independent

Local democracy

Change to London mayoral elections complicates thinking for independent candidates

Over the weekend The Sun reported on rumours that Paul Scully MP, the former Conservative Minister for London, was considering...

Electoral Reform in Westminster

New Senedd Bill is an investment in Welsh democracy

Yesterday in the Senedd, the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, said “democracy only flourishes if you tend the garden to which...

We should be building barriers to suspicious money, not the ballot box

Campaign Regulation

Electoral Commission chair calls out government on voter ID and finance loopholes

In a recent, wide-ranging, interview with the Financial Times, John Pullinger, the chair of the Electoral Commission, expressed concerns about...

A strong call to better engage with the people of Wales

Devolution

Constitutional Commission on the Future of Wales’s report is a welcome contribution

Last Friday, after two years of work, the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales presented its final report...

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

Electoral Reform in Westminster

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...

Shouldn’t MPs win or lose their seats based on voters changing their minds

Electoral Reform in Westminster

Changing boundaries shouldn’t change election results

For the past 30 years, political scientists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher have been investigating how new boundaries will impact...

Liz Truss appointed one peer for every 1.5 days she served as Prime Minister

House of Lords

The UK’s shortest serving PM hands out peerages to friends and supporters

In the days between Christmas and New Year, the government tried to quietly slip out some bad news – it...

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

Electoral Reform in Westminster

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....

Electoral Reform in Westminster

The top 5 most-read ERS articles from 2023

Every year we have a look through the stats to see which of our articles were the most popular with...

Only one-in-four think it is OK to hand out peerages in order to parachute people into cabinet

House of Lords

Fewer than one-in-four support prime ministers handing out peerages to parachute people into cabinet

Our recent polling, covered by the Daily Mirror, has found that fewer than one-in-four individuals think it is acceptable for...

Voter ID

Government report can’t say if voter ID made any difference to problem it was supposed to solve

The government has published its evaluation of the Elections Act changes, including the voter ID requirement, used for the first...

Powys and Gwynedd Councils have both voted YES to a public consultation on First Past the Post

ERS Cymru

Powys and Gwynedd lead the way for Welsh councils with consultation votes

There was fantastic news for voters coming out of Powys and Gwynedd today, as their County Councils have voted YES...