Today, July 6, 2024 Keir Starmer said in his first press conference as prime minister: «We have a clear mandate.» That is a half-truth. Yes, Labour won 64% of the seats in the House of Commons. But with only 34% of the votes. Only roughly one in three voters gave Labour a mandate to govern. Futhermore, only 60% of the roughly 46 million registered voters in the United Kingdom went to the polls. Voter turnout in 2024 was down 7.4 pp in comparison with 2019. In short, only 20% of all British with the right to vote actually voted for Labour in 2024. That is not a strong mandate.
In my May 2020 article about the 2019 election result, I noted: «The British electoral system is unfair to smaller parties. The first-past-the-post majority vote makes it impossible for smaller parties and minority opinions to be fairly represented in parliament. Therefore, with only 43.6% of the vote, Boris Johnson and his Conservatives won a landslide victory: 365 out of 650 seats in the House of Commons.»
In 2024 Labour benefited even more from the first-past-the-post system, winning more seats with a smaller percentage of the overall vote than the Conservatives in 2019.
In 2011, the United Kingdom had held a national referendum on a reform of the first-past-the-post voting system. But British voters clearly rejected the referendum by by 68% to 32%. I feel sorry for all the smaller parties and minorities who think their voices are not being heard, but my pity with the majority is zero.
The 2011 referendum came after the 2010 election had delivered a «hung parliament», and the Conservatives had formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. The LibDems had demanded the referendum to replace the first-past-the post system with an “Alternative Vote”, which should show results more proportional to the national share of vote.
The 2024 House of Commons election shows the largest gap ever between the total share of the vote and seats won. As mentioned above, Labour was benefiting most from the unfair system, winning 64% of the 650 seats with only 34% of the vote. This time, the LibDems were not one of the major victims. With 12% of the vote, they won 11% of the seats. But the Reform UK party of the populist key Brexiter Nigel Farage won 14% of the vote, but only 1% of the seats. The Green parties shared a similar fate: with 7% of the vote, they only won 1% of the seats. The SNP managed to win 3% of the vote, but only got 1% of the seats. Other smaller parties such as the DUP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin all won 1% of the vote and got 1% of the seats. But the SNP and the three smaller parties mentioned all are regional parties, which do not try to win seats all over the United Kingdom.
The «stability» that majority systems bring comes at a high price. A large part of the electorate feels disenfrachised, because their voices are not heard, their votes are not adequately converted into seats.
Proportional representation systems are more democratic. But they need parties that are prepared to form coalitions. Democracy thrives on compromise, which is not the case in the UK, France and other countries. Proportional elections require a different policial culture.
The UK’s first-past-the-post voting system is unfair and leads to voter disaffection. It does not strenghten stability, it undermines democracy.
Advertissement (accept cookies; we receive a commission, you pay the same price):
Luggage and suitcases at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk
Beauty items at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Article added on July 6, 2024 at 15:19 German time.
