The Liberal Democrats assembled in the picturesque Yorkshire town of Harrogate this weekend for their spring conference, where they discussed how to build on their success in the general election and maximise the impact of their record cohort of 72 MPs in Parliament. Among the policy topics debated, advancing the case for fairer electoral systems was high on the agenda, especially after the success of the 10-minute rule bill in December that saw Parliament vote in favour of proportional representation. This made for an excited backdrop as we held our fringe on Saturday evening with Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform (LDER), which was so packed the crowd spilled out of the door.
Proportional representation is now the “express will” of Parliament
The event was chaired by the MP behind the 10-miniute rule bill, Sarah Olney, who opened by saying the first reading of the bill and its surprise win was “the most fun she had had in the chamber”. Since then, she said she has been pressing Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with responsibility for the Cabinet Office, for the bill to be given time for a second reading, arguing it is now the “express will of the house”. She warned the government it would need to grasp the issue of the electoral system after it produced the most disproportional result in British history at the general election. Sarah said: “[Labour] won a massive majority of the seats in 2024 on 34% of the vote. It is not a sustainable system; it is not a sustainable way of electing governments.”
Eastbourne MP Josh Babarinde, who was first elected in July, made a case that the overall political conditions were now moving in a favourable direction for electoral reformers.
He said: “If you look at electoral reform in western European democracies over the last 50 to 100 years, countries tend to change from having a majoritarian system, like First Past the Post, to a proportional one when the two main parties have their dominance threatened, usually by a fragmentation of the party system and they choose to adopt something that will best preserve their position in that context.
“I think what we are seeing here is that fragmentation: the Liberal Democrats on 72 seats – our biggest win in a century – we are seeing Reform do pretty well in some of the polls and we will see how that materialises at the next general election. But it could be the case that First Past the Post doesn’t serve Labour as it certainly didn’t serve the Conservatives at the last election, so could that be an opportunity to break through.”
‘A parliament that least looks the way we voted in history’
The ERS’s Communications Officer, Hannah Camilleri, addressed the fringe on the importance of speaking to the public about proportional representation in a way that engaged them while highlighting how distorted the last election’s result was. She added: “We had a general election that established that we have the most disproportional result in our history – we have a parliament that least looks the way we voted in our history.”
Also speaking on the panel was, Dave McCobb, the party’s Director of Field Campaigns, who discussed how the problems with First Past the Post could grow in salience as we approach the next general election. He said:
“We have an unprecedently fractured voting system in this country and there is a real risk that the next general election produces a result that is not just disproportional in the way the last one was but is effectively an unpredictable lottery.”
Arguments for proportional representation are the same for councils as they are Westminster
As well as the case for reforming the electoral system at Westminster, the debate also turned to how to move councils in England and Wales, which still use First Past the Post, onto fairer proportional voting systems.
Charlie Clinton, a Lib Dem councillor on Brent Council in London, argued that the party would make the case for fairer electoral systems even in places where they have benefited from First Past the Post. He said: “The reality is the arguments are the same whether you are talking about parliaments or councils: democracy is democracy, if people want to vote for someone they should be represented by them. That is that and it does not change.”
You can support events like this by becoming a member of the Electoral Reform Society
Join the ERS today