The Reformer

Keir Starmer Portrait

Keir Starmer: “We’ve got to address the fact that millions of people vote in safe seats and they feel their vote doesn’t count”

Keir Starmer’s backing of electoral reform puts democracy at the heart of Labour’s leadership contest From one Keir to another,...

The broken Westminster system is at the root of this dissatisfaction

People are rightly losing faith in politics, it’s time for democratic renewal

A new report by the recently established Centre for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge has found...

Parties and third-party campaigners spent around £5.9 million on Facebook

Britain’s campaign laws leave our elections open to fake news and manipulation

December’s election was the third Westminster election in four years. Each one of those has highlighted a growing crisis facing...

A generation in England and Northern Ireland are being left behind

England, give young people the vote like your neighbours

If you were a 16 or 17-year-old is Scotland, you probably felt quite annoyed at being left out of December’s...

Labour Hustings

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...

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...

Welsh Polling station

The campaign for a fairer franchise just secured a major victory

16 and 17 year olds in Wales have officially secured the right to vote for Senedd elections, after a crucial...

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

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...

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

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...

Most read blogs of 2019

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...

Polling Station

Electoral Registration Officers – the Runnymede Trust want to hear from you

This is a guest post from Dr Zubaida Haque, the Deputy Director of the Runnymede Trust. There are over 8 million...

Westminster’s voting system puts tactics above policies

Chelsea Oware reflects on the research undertaken during her university placement at the ERS. General elections are prime fodder for...