Mary Southcott on moves to democratise elections
Missed out on the last King’s Speech in 2024, some promises in Labour’s Manifesto are up for consideration in the new Representation of the People Bill.
Ann Black’s Labour NEC Report wrote this: “would limit donations from overseas electors and bar cryptocurrency, as well as introducing votes at 16 for all UK elections and moving towards automatic voter registration”.
Although too late to submit evidence there was until 22 April an opportunity for individuals, via the Modernising Elections Inquiry run by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, to submit individual evidence on the future of UK elections. Proportional Representation should be part of this.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Fair Elections, chaired by Alex Sobel MP, has concentrated on PR for the Commons. They recommend a National Commission on Electoral Reform, which, if set up, could be the get-out clause for a Labour government which so far has refused to legislate.
The fallback position is the Petition from Dame Joan Ruddock, to set up a National Commission on Electoral Reform, an independent, time limited, expert led review to build consensus for changing the electoral system for the Westminster Parliament. 100,000 signatures should trigger a debate in the Commons.
The media have concentrated on the funding of political parties, especially in light of big donations to Reform UK. From the Rycroft Review into countering foreign influence, the Governmentaccepted a total ban on crypto donations and a new £100,000 cap on political contributions coming from British voters currently living overseas. But only a cap on all political donations will kick big money out of politics.
The Devolution Act 2025, also known as the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, reinstated the Supplementary Vote for Mayors “to ensure a winning candidate received a broader level of support”. In the current multi-party environment, it will not always be clear which candidates will be the top two in the first round of voting. There was a failed amendment to replace SV by the Alternative Vote, to avoid guesswork and spoilt ballot papers.
Any defeats in London, Scotland and Wales will focus thinking after 7 May. There should not be a binary choice between FPTP and a fully proportional system. Nor should preferential voting be backed.
There needs to be a clearer commitment to full automatic registration, which would bring eight million more voters onto the register, plus the two million young people. Some element of proportionality needs to be used at the next general election to deal with what Professor Rob Ford calls a “patchwork quilt of political fragmentation”.