Electoral reform used to be a live issue. It appeared in party manifestos; it was the subject of a national referendum and proposals for reform of the second chamber; proportional representation was even enacted for votes to choose representatives in London, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and to Europe. Yet it seems to have dropped off the agenda.
The Liberal Democrats still promote PR for the Commons, but both they and Labour have turned vague on elections to the Lords, where the use of PR is more likely. The Conservatives actually promised to end the use of the Supplementary Vote for choosing directly-elected Mayors and Police Commissioners. Electoral reformers could be forgiven for thinking another false dawn in the Coalition has receded into the darkness of traditional first-past-the-post.
Andrew Marr has argued that the issue is “caked in hypocrisy and self-interest,” in that those who benefit from first-past-the-post dismiss the arguments against it, while those with a vested interest for changing it are by definition disempowered from doing so. However, that is too simplistic: change can come because minor parties gain leverage over major ones (as the Lib Dems did with both Tony Blair and David Cameron); because major parties fear their success under first-past-the-post is fragile (Blair saw this too); or because wider public expectation is too strong to ignore (as with the devolved institutions).
"Green MP Caroline Lucas speaks for over half a million who supported her party, and Ukip won 594,068 votes and gained no representation at all"Certainly the 2017 general election delivers up the usual harvest of evidence for a more proportional electoral system. Theresa May’s reduced number of Conservative MPs represent 42,579 voters each, while there were 49,141 Labour voters for each of the party’s MPs. Another 400 votes in the right places would have secured May a parliamentary majority with 42 per cent of the poll.
Among the smaller parties the disparities were wider: Plaid Cymru needed barely 41,000 votes, and the Scottish National Party less than 28,000 to win each seat they hold, while May’s new parliamentary allies in the Democratic Unionist Party represent fewer than 30,000 voters each. On the other hand, the Liberal Democrats won nearly 200,000 votes for each of their dozen seats, Green MP Caroline Lucas speaks for over half a million who supported her party, and Ukip won 594,068 votes and gained no representation at all.
Needless to say, most MPs were elected against the majority opinion of their constituents, one of them—Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Ben Lake—winning with just 29.2 per cent of the vote. Individually and collectively, MPs’ claims to representative legitimacy are no better than after any previous general election.
"The strongest case against the current system is its increasing inability to supply its own unique selling proposition"At the level of government, first-past-the-post’s boast of producing single-party administrations that can be held clearly accountable prompts ironic laughter. Theresa May warned of a “coalition of chaos” before the election and now needs minor parties to support a minority government. In fact, the 2017 result means that the first-past-the-post system has provided single-party majority governments at only three-quarters of the last dozen elections, and a third of those had majorities of 21 or less. As May is forced to forge an arrangement with the DUP, the strongest case against the current system is thus its increasing inability to supply its own unique selling proposition.
One common observation about 2017 is that the two-party system is back, but that does not mean that the cause of PR is dead. Labour remains excluded, partly by the electoral system; there is some talk of a progressive alliance committed to electoral reform; and the travails of the government will undermine faith in the current system further. There is certainly an appetite in parts of Westminster as well as the public for a less adversarial approach to Brexit while no single party can claim a convincing mandate.
It was in the two-party system of the 1970s that 100 Tory MPs supported PR and the Lib-Lab Pact brought it onto the agenda. If we had been told a year ago that Theresa May would be leading a minority government supported by the DUP into Brexit while President Donald Trump watched from abroad, we would have scoffed. Perhaps there are good surprises in store too.
