POLL OF THE DAY: Should Britain scrap the First-past-the-post system? VOTE HERE
By Oliver Trapnell
Published: 05/07/2024
Updated: 05/07/2024
Do you think Britain should scrap the first-past-the-post system? Have your say in the comments section below
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Britons have questioned whether it is time to ditch the first-past-the-post voting system after Reform gained four seats in the General Election compared to the Lib Dems' 71.
Under the voting system, voters put a cross next to their preferred candidate and the candidate with the most votes is elected the MP for that seat.
However, all other votes are discarded.
Although the results of the election saw the Labour Party win the contest in a landslide, social media users have claimed parties like Reform UK and the Lib Dems were unfairly represented based on vote share.
Ed Davey’s Party surged to 71 seats while Nigel Farage’s Reform Party gained four.
Breaking down the share of the votes, however, it was found that Reform garnered more than 4 million votes, while the Lib Dems achieved just 3.4 million.
In an Op-ed following his win in Boston and Skegness, Reform chairman Richard Tice said the First-past-the-post system was “rotten to its core” and “robbed voters of their voice”.
He wrote in the Telegraph: “At this point in the morning, the Labour Party has received roughly two and a half times as many votes as Reform UK, and won 50 times the number of MPs. The Conservative party have received 50 per cent more votes, and received ten times the number of MPs. And the Liberal Democrats have won 30 per cent fewer votes, and won six times the number of MPs.
“When the dust clears, people will want to know how this has happened. Where is the simple democratic fairness in this system? The answer is simple: our first-past-the-post system is rotten, which is why so many other democracies use a form of proportional representation.”
Reacting to the news online, social media users expressed their fury and frustration.
One user said: “Reform UK4m votes4 seats. Lib Dems3.4m votes71 seats
“Our system is broken and rigged.”
Another user said: “That’s not democracy. It’s broken.”
A third user said: “First past the post can throw up some interesting stats
“Reform have 4 seats with 4 million votesPlaid have 4 with less than 200,000.”
Defending the system, one non-Reform voting user said: “I know First Past the Post is a pretty c****y voting system, but if we'd had Proportional Representation we'd be looking at 93 seats for Reform just now instead of 4, so let's just park that for another day.”
Do you think Britain should scrap the first-past-the-post system? Vote now in our poll above and have your say in the comments section below.
