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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...

Governments often seem wholly incapable of delivering on their objectives

Electoral Reform in Westminster

Strong government vs good government? First Past the Post means our governments will always fail to deliver

Government failures are always in the news, but we rarely question why it is that our governments often seem so...

The spending cap for each party has been raised by 80 percent from 19m to about 35m

Money in Politics

New political funding rules sneak in

When people are asked about the problems with money in politics, few raise the issue of there not being enough....

Voters do care about women’s leadership in elected office

ERS Cymru

Voters prefer decisions made by panels balanced between men and women

Men still dominate political decision-making in the United Kingdom. Women hold just one or two seats on prestigious select committees...

House of Lords

David Cameron’s seat at the cabinet table means a seat for life in the Lords

David Cameron was appointed as Foreign Secretary this week – but he’s not been an MP since 2016. How is...