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10 years since the Equality Act was introduced, parties need to come clean on diversity

It has been 10 years since the Equality Act (2010) received Royal Assent, providing Britain with a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. Sadly, not all of...

Posted 08 Apr 2020

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 challenged on how to fix Britain’s broken political system. When asked about their views on...

Posted 27 Jan 2020

Policies for a fairer politics: How we can fix a broken system

This election, the political system is more distrusted by voters than it has been for years. It’s not hard to see why. The sense that people do not feel ‘heard’ is growing: an ERS poll...

Posted 08 Nov 2019

There are popular, vital ideas for change which we know work

Euro elections show how Westminster’s first past the post holds back women

Elections to the European Parliament take place today across the UK. As we’ve talked about in a previous blog post, the UK’s 73 MEPs will be elected using proportional representation (PR). In Great Britain, the...

Posted 23 May 2019

Electoral systems play a big role in the number of women elected

Political parties need to stand more women candidates to close the political gender gap

There can be no doubt that in order to see more women elected to our political institutions, political parties need to stand more women candidates. Yet there is no official information on the diversity of...

Posted 08 Mar 2019

We should know what happens at candidate selections

Five New Year’s resolutions ministers should be signing up to

If 2018 has shown us anything, it’s that the debates over the state of our democracy are as crucial as ever. From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the controversial ID trials at the local elections,...

Posted 31 Dec 2018

Time is running out in this Centenary year – why are the government waiting to tackle the ‘political gender gap’?

In November, the Electoral Reform Society helped coordinate an unprecedented coalition of campaigners and politicians in calling for government action on the ‘political gender gap’. Marking the centenary of women’s right to stand for Parliament,...

Posted 14 Dec 2018

Political parties should publish their candidate diversity data

We know the gender pay gap – what about the political gender gap?

Next Wednesday we’ll mark 100 years since Parliament passed legislation enabling women (over 21) to become MPs for the first time. Sadly, since that landmark legislation, there has been a grand total of just 491...

Posted 15 Nov 2018

How the new Welsh party leaders can make a difference on diversity

Has there ever been such a time of change in Welsh politics? By the end of this year there is a chance that none of the parties in the Assembly will have the same leader...

Posted 15 Aug 2018

There’s an easy way to tackle the ‘political gender gap’ – what’s the government waiting for?

It’s no news that British politics has a big problem with gender diversity. Just a third of MPs and councillors are women. Established prejudices need challenging, social media trolls need stopping and there must be...

Posted 02 Jul 2018