ERS in the Press: General Election edition

Author:
Hannah Camilleri, Communications Officer

Posted on the 11th July 2024

Change. That was the driving message of Labour’s successful general election campaign, and change was very much on the agenda for the ERS Comms team (as far as the electoral system goes) as we’ve been kept busy with requests over the last few weeks of the campaign.

On election night

We’ve spent the last few months meeting journalists to discuss what could happen, and to make sure they understood the background on our issues.

Across the evening of the general election, whilst many of you were watching the exit poll come in, we were busy briefing journalists and commentators with the unexpected situations that our voting system often throws up. This original research was used across the main coverage, including Channel 4, the BBC, and Sky News. Our briefings also made its way into an episode of the chart topping political podcast, The Rest is Politics.

After the election

Post election, we have toured TV studios and papers to give journalists and the public the info they need to digest the election results. Our research team found that the 2024 general election results were the most disproportionate in British electoral history. It was an evening of firsts for other reasons too for example, this election was the first ever which saw four parties receiving 10%+ of the vote share.

Armed with this work, we arranged  for our Chief Executive, Darren Hughes, to go onto BBC Radio 4, BBC 5 Live, Times Radio  and the BBC Breakfast sofa to make the case for  proportional representation. We even had our research confirmed by BBC Verify.

ERS Chief Executive Darren Hughes on BBC Breakfast, Sunday 7th July

We’ve not just won coverage on the TV and Radio – newspapers and magazines have also picked up the story.

The I featured us to discuss the difference in votes it takes for an MP to be elected for each party, as did the Express. We reached a new audience as Cosmopolitan magazine looked at the voting system as a whole. While the Guardian and the Independent took a look at voter turnout and what could be done to improve it.

The Comms team at the ERS has been working so hard to push the agenda for proportional representation and electoral change in the media that there are too many links to feature! We will continue to press the new government that real ‘change’ can only come about with a fair, proportional voting system.

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As momentum builds for electoral reform, your support is more important than ever. Members support our work in parliament, in the press and online – making the case, and backing it up – for how we can fix Westminster’s broken system.

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