📣 Getting the Representation of the People Bill Right: Preventing Disinformation in UK Elections 📣
Thank you to everyone who joined our event in Parliament last night!
💬 Featuring a cross-party panel of MPs alongside @reformpoliticalads.bsky.social and @fullfact.org.
⚠️Sir John Curtice says Labour and the Conservatives can no longer rely on First Past the Post
Asked by @danbloom1.bsky.social of @politico.com if Westminster's electoral system was tenable, Britain's leading polling expert said “Those who live by the sword can die by the sword”
#ElectoralReform
⚠️Sir John Curtice says Labour and the Conservatives can no longer rely on First Past the Post
Asked by @danbloom1.bsky.social of @politico.com if Westminster's electoral system was tenable, Britain's leading polling expert said “Those who live by the sword can die by the sword”
#ElectoralReform
📣 Website update 📣
We've moved to a new domain:
👉 fairelections.org.uk 👈
Check it out to read more about our recent activities and the latest developments on the issues we're working on.
“Hannah White, chief executive of the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk, wrote: “If casting a vote starts to feel more like participating in a lottery than making a positive and principled decision, then voters are going to become ever more frustrated. This is dangerous.””
@drhannahwhite.bsky.social
🗳️ We welcome the recommendations of the Rycroft Review into countering foreign interference in our politics.
💷 But more needs to be done to stop the undemocratic influence of big money, not just from abroad.
💬 APPG member @shockatadam.bsky.social:
🚨"This Bill... does not stand up to the moment of crisis and the moment of peril that our democracy faces."
📣 On the Representation of the People Bill Committee, our Vice-Chair @lisasmartmp.bsky.social raised the need for a National Commission on Electoral Reform:
🗳️"Electoral reform must be carried out not because it may benefit any particular party or ideology, but because it puts power back into the hands of the British people."
✍️ @luke-akehurstmp.bsky.social in @politicshome.bsky.social
Great to be on the James O'Brien show just now talking about how we are working with @fullfact.org and @appgfairelections.bsky.social to get rules for transparency and factual accuracy included in the Representation the People Bill.
We'll post the recording later.
💥 Professor Vernon Bogdanor writes for @financialtimes.com:
"An electoral system should do two things: ensure that the majority rules and that significant minorities are adequately represented.
First Past the Post achieves neither."
📑 In his speech about the Representation of the People Bill, @ollyglover.bsky.social quoted an open letter from 50+ academics, warning about the dangers of FPTP.
➡️ Read it here: www.politicshome.com/news/article...
📣 "We no longer live in a two-party system, and if we continue to have an electoral system that doesn't acknowledge that fact, we will have, as Professor @robfordmancs.bsky.social says, elections that lead to even more chaotic and unpredictable results."
👇 @chriscurtis94.bsky.social
💬 Sarah Olney MP reminded the House that MPs had voted for her Proportional Representation Bill in December 2024.
❌ Inside and outside of Parliament, there is a growing acknowledgment that our voting system is not fit for purpose.
⏰ It's time to consider the alternatives.
❗️"It's increasingly common for people to question whether their vote is meaningful in any sense at all."
📣 @patrickhurley.bsky.social speaking in the Representation of the People Bill debate:
🚨 "The government's refusal to look at Proportional Representation
is dangerously short-sighted."
💬 Brendan O’Hara MP speaks during this week's Representation of the People Bill debate 👇
❗️Increasing political fragmentation means the case for electoral reform is now stronger than ever.
"Numerous MPs across parties called for a move to PR, or at least a National Commission on Electoral Reform, arguing FPTP is unfit for a multi-party political landscape.
@appgfairelections.bsky.social and Make Votes Matter are among those planning to keep up the fight."
@josiahmortimer.bsky.social
🗳️"I think this Bill would have been a great opportunity to have a kind of commission... to make sure that people feel that their vote counts."
📣 @catsmithmp.bsky.social used her speech in the Representation of the People Bill debate to endorse our plan for a National Commission on Electoral Reform.
🚨 "Large groups of permanently unrepresented voters create fertile ground for anger and extremism."
🗯️ Powerful speech by @rozsavage.bsky.social about the dangers of sticking with FPTP in our current, fragmented and polarised reality.
👉 The Representation of the People Bill needs to address this.
👀 Watch APPG member Simon Opher, Labour MP for Stroud, call for a National Commission on Electoral Reform to address Westminster’s flawed voting system
🗳️ "We can do better than fighting elections on the basis of the best worst option."
👏 "I want to put on record my support for the work of the APPG for Fair Elections and to urge ministers to look at the call for some form of National Commission on Electoral Reform."
@jamesnaish.bsky.social
⚖️ "It's the principled thing to do, to ensure every vote counts equally."
💬 Our Vice-Chair @elliechowns.bsky.social also used the Second Reading of the Representation of the People Bill to call for electoral reform.
💯 Most of the public agree: our voting system urgently needs an update.
🗳️"Our First Past the Post voting system was outdated decades ago, [it's] a millstone around the neck of our democratic life."
💬 Our Vice-Chair @lisasmartmp.bsky.social during last night's Second Reading debate of the Representation of the People Bill 👇
Good to see this excellent intervention from Labour MPs Becky Cooper and Tim Roca - rightly focusing on the immediate democratic risks created by FPTP, and highlighting the @appgfairelections.bsky.social's proposal for a National Commission as the way forward
"This Labour government can still build consensus for an alternative, but it must do so urgently.
We need a national commission on electoral reform"
✍️ Beccy Cooper MP & Tim Roca MP
#Democracy
@drbeccycoopermp.bsky.social @timrocamp.bsky.social @politics.co.uk
www.politics.co.uk/mp-comment/2...
🚨 Gorton & Denton shows “First-past-the-post is creaking at the seams” warns @drhannahwhite.bsky.social of @instituteforgovernment.org.uk
🙈 “Maintaining the parliamentary status quo... is dangerously short sighted."
#ElectoralReform
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gort...
Interesting overview from @alanrenwick.bsky.social on the range of democratic reforms that will come into focus during the Representation of the People Bill, from dark money to disinformation and Westminster's failing electoral system 👇
🗯️ "At the next election, a minority party could win a majority of seats with just a fraction of the popular vote."
🗳️ APPG member @annadixonmp.bsky.social made the case in Parliament for a National Commission on Electoral Reform.
Read more about our proposal: makevotesmatter.org.uk/national-com...
In the 1950s, Labour and the Tories won 95% of the vote combined.
Last election? Just 58%.
The two-party era is over. Clinging to First Past the Post won't save progressive politics – it risks breaking it.
Jenny Riddell-Carpenter MP writes
The era of two-party politics is over.
Under First Past the Post, this means:
❌ MPs most constituents didn't vote for
❌ Single-party governments that most of the country never wanted
@appgfairelections.bsky.social Chair @alexsobel.co.uk is right: this is not a way to run a democracy.
Over the weekend, more than 50 academics urged the government to shift away from first-past-the-post, warning that it is not designed to handle multi-party politics
The letter, shared with PolHome, said it risks electoral "distortions" on an "unprecedented" scale at the next general election
