Change to London mayoral elections complicates thinking for independent candidates Over the weekend The Sun reported on rumours that Paul Scully MP, the former Conservative Minister for London, was considering running as an independent candidate for London mayor. We can’t comment on whether these Tory... Posted 05 Feb 2024
New Senedd Bill is an investment in Welsh democracy Yesterday in the Senedd, the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, said “democracy only flourishes if you tend the garden to which it is sowed”. He was speaking in a statement around the recent publication of the... Posted 31 Jan 2024
Electoral Commission chair calls out government on voter ID and finance loopholes In a recent, wide-ranging, interview with the Financial Times, John Pullinger, the chair of the Electoral Commission, expressed concerns about the government’s voter ID scheme and the threat to the Commission’s independence contained in the... Posted 25 Jan 2024
Constitutional Commission on the Future of Wales’s report is a welcome contribution Last Friday, after two years of work, the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales presented its final report at the Senedd. It recognises the urgent need to improve Welsh democracy and we welcome... Posted 25 Jan 2024
First past the post distorts public opinion on small boats Last week’s YouGov MRP poll showing Labour on course for a 1997-style general election victory created a big splash. In addition to asking about people’s general election voting intention, YouGov asked respondents about their views... Posted 22 Jan 2024
Changing boundaries shouldn’t change election results For the past 30 years, political scientists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher have been investigating how new boundaries will impact the political makeup of Parliament. Whenever new constituency maps are designed, they estimate what the... Posted 16 Jan 2024
The UK’s shortest serving PM hands out peerages to friends and supporters In the days between Christmas and New Year, the government tried to quietly slip out some bad news – it hoped many people would be too distracted by remnant cheeseboards and left-over Turkey to notice... Posted 02 Jan 2024
The Non-Battleground Election: Millions of voters are ignored Last week, the Labour Party started the process of selecting their general election candidates for 211 ‘non-battleground’ constituencies in England. The description of these seats as being ‘non-battleground’ is telling, implying that Labour will not... Posted 18 Dec 2023
The top 5 most-read ERS articles from 2023 Every year we have a look through the stats to see which of our articles were the most popular with readers in the year coming to a close. So if you missed them the first... Posted 14 Dec 2023
Fewer than one-in-four support prime ministers handing out peerages to parachute people into cabinet Our recent polling, covered by the Daily Mirror, has found that fewer than one-in-four individuals think it is acceptable for prime ministers to appoint peers to the House of Lords so they can parachute them... Posted 12 Dec 2023