A cross-party campaigner has urged Andy Burnham to support a national commission on proportional representation (PR), arguing that the current first past the post (FPTP) system is causing a governing crisis.
Writing in an opinion piece, Neal Lawson, director of the cross-party campaign organisation Compass, said the prime minister is a longstanding supporter of electoral reform and should back an amendment tabled to the representation of the people bill, which comes before parliament next Wednesday for its final stages.
Fragmented Electoral Landscape
Lawson pointed to a Mail on Sunday poll from the end of June that showed Reform at 21%, with Labour and the Tories also low, demonstrating a fragmented political landscape. He cited this week's YouGov voting intention figures putting Reform, Labour and the Tories on 23%, 22% and 20% respectively, with the Greens and Liberal Democrats on 13% each.
He argued that this fragmentation exists despite FPTP, which punishes parties outside the two-party duopoly by refusing to match votes to seats. Labour won two-thirds of the seats in the Commons in 2024 on just a third of the vote, he noted, but governments with unrepresentative majorities are vulnerable to voter backlash.
Internal Opposition to Reform
Lawson said a minority but powerful view within the Labour party, the cabinet and the party bureaucracy is vehemently opposed to PR and the plural politics of cooperation it demands. He described these opponents as "rearguard reactionaries" who prefer Labour governing alone, however tiny its share of the vote, to sharing power.
He argued that democracy should not be designed around what is best for any party, but around what works best for the country, and that the myth of strong government from FPTP is dead.
Call for Change
Quoting Willy Brandt, the fabled leader of the German Social Democrats, who in 1969 implored the left to "dare more democracy", Lawson said the time has come to embrace multiparty government and ensure everyone's vote is counted equally. He said Burnham, who made big changes happen in Manchester by working cross-party, can transform the country by backing himself and his best instincts on PR.
