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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...

House of Lords

Which is the best electoral system for the House of Lords?

Whenever the issue of creating an elected Second Chamber comes up, a common question is how it should be elected....

At over 800 peers in total, it dwarfs all other second chambers around the world

House of Lords

How many peers are there in the House of Lords – and how many does it need?

One of the unique features of our currently second chamber, apart from it being unelected and still partially based on...

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...

Unfinished Business Routes to an Elected Second Chamber

House of Lords

Unfinished Business: New report shows routes to an elected Second Chamber

Reform of the House of Lords is both hugely popular with the public and very long overdue. Yet in any...

Over 3 million more British citizens might be able to vote in the next election

Money in Politics

How do countries around the world deal with overseas voters?

In October, legislation was introduced which would enable over 3 million more British citizens to vote. Wondering where the government...

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...

Electoral Reform in Westminster

2023 at the ERS: Party conference season report

Each year we write an Annual Report which looks back at our achievements across the last 12 months, and explains...