In the 2017 UK General Election the Conservatives got just over 6 percent more of the votes than Labour, but got 21 percent more MPs (source). The Scottish Nationalist Party got fewer than half the votes of the Liberal Democrats—yet got nearly three times the MPs. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) got ten MPs, with a little more than half the Green Party's votes (1 MP)—and a little less than half of UKIP's (0—zero!—MPs).
This is not fair. This is not a good representation of the electorate. This is the result of the First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system used in UK General Elections—and in many former British colonies. This needs to change. We need to improve our democratic process and ensure that every vote counts.
One way to redress this imbalance between vote ratio and MPs is to switch to a system of proportional representation (PR). In the table below I've calculated what the number of MPs would be for each party if we used PR. Note that I've rounded up to the nearest MP, as electing 76% of an MP could be deeply traumatic for those involved and could discourage people from standing. (You could just as well round down and get a slightly lower number of MPs.)
Party | Votes | % of the vote | MPs currently | MPs with PR | Gain/Loss in MPs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 13667213 | 42.45 | 318 | 276 | -42 |
Labour | 12874985 | 39.99 | 262 | 260 | -2 |
Scottish National Party | 977569 | 3.04 | 35 | 20 | -15 |
Liberal Democrat | 2371772 | 7.37 | 12 | 48 | 36 |
Democratic Unionist Party | 292316 | 0.91 | 10 | 6 | -4 |
Sinn Fein | 238915 | 0.74 | 7 | 5 | -2 |
Plaid Cymru | 164466 | 0.51 | 4 | 3 | -1 |
Green Party | 525371 | 1.63 | 1 | 11 | 10 |
UKIP | 593852 | 1.84 | 0 | 12 | 12 |
Social Democratic & Labour Party | 95419 | 0.30 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Ulster Unionist Party | 83280 | 0.26 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Alliance Party | 64553 | 0.20 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The Yorkshire Party | 20958 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
National Health Action | 16119 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Christian Peoples Alliance | 5869 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
British National Party | 4642 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Monster Raving Loony Party | 3890 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Women's Equality Party | 3580 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Pirate Party | 2321 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
English Democrats | 1913 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Workers Revolutionary Party | 771 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Social Democratic Party | 469 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Others | 186675 | 0.58 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
Total | 32196918 | 100 | 650 | 650 | 0 |
One challenge is to get a good balance of MPs with a local connection to the area they represent, and proportionate representation for the country as a whole. Another toughie—at least for me personally—is that under proportional representation UKIP would have 12 MPs. But this is the cost of democracy: we cannot simply silence the voices we don't like.
The Electoral Reform Society is the UK's leading voice for democratic reform. They have a list of voting systems on their website, several of which addresses this. The biggest challenge they face, however, is to get any proportional system through Parliament—given the incumbent party would lose out massively. Nevertheless, I think it's important to try.