Pressure grows for National Commission for Electoral Reform in Commons debate

Members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections used a ground-breaking debate in the House of Commons to urge the government to address Britain’s “flawed” voting system.

More than twenty members hailing from both sides of the House lined up to condemn Britain’s First Past the Post system, describing it as “undemocratic”, “unrepresentative”, and “outdated”, with just one backbencher giving a speech in defence of the status quo.

Notably, the debate pushed the government to take concrete first steps electoral reform, with parliamentarians calling for a National Commission to be established to recommend a replacement to the current system. The debate – and the APPG for Fair Election’s call for a National Commission for Electoral Reform – was picked up by well over 100 national, regional and local news outlets across the UK.

Leading the debate, Alex Sobel MP (Labour and Cooperative), who Chairs the APPG for Fair Elections, called First Past the Post: “A voting system that means millions of people’s votes don’t count. A voting system that most people don’t want to continue with… that’s why I urge the government to take this first step, by establishing a National Commission for Electoral Reform”.

Lisa Smart MP (Liberal Democrats), APPG Vice Chair, said: “PR is already used in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in different forms, as well as in the vast majority of democracies worldwide. So why not here?  Evidence shows that PR leads to higher voter turnout and more representative governments.”

Recent polling by Survation found that two thirds (64%) of the public want the government to address the flaws in the current voting system before the next general election. Earlier this month YouGov reported record support for changing to a proportional voting system (48%) – and the lowest support for maintaining First Past the Post (24%). 

The Backbench Business Debate was proposed by members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections, one of the largest and fastest growing such groups in Parliament. It follows a “historic” vote in favour of PR in December, when the House of Commons passed a symbolic motion with the support of 138 MPs, including 59 from the governing party.

Every MP in Great Britain has been asked by constituents to attend the debate, with over 11,000 people writing to their local representative in recent days.

The 2024 general election was the most distorted in British history, with Labour winning a landslide majority despite receiving just one in three votes. 21% of voters backed either Green Party and Reform UK, yet these parties won a combined 9 seats – or 1% of MPs . The APPG for Fair Elections argues that this is just the most recent example of a system that is becoming less representative over time and contributing to collapsing trust in politics in Britain.