Cllr Emma Best is a London-wide London Assembly Member and the Leader of the Conservative Group on Waltham Forest Council
“The present system for Westminster elections has clearly broken down. The results produced are not fair to any party, nor to any section of the community. In many cases they do not secure majority representation, nor do they secure an intelligent representation of minorities. All they secure is fluke representation, freak representation, capricious representation.”
These are the words of Winston Churchill I so often reflect on and especially now after such a historically bad loss for the Conservatives in a General Election.
For as long as I have talked about reforming our electoral system I have been told that it would be akin to electoral suicide. I have been told over and over that First Past the Post is the best model under which we can win, and any change would see us eternally locked out of Government.
All evidence and reason does not support that argument and whether one sees the virtues of more proportional representation or not, it seems inevitable that electoral reform will happen, with public support for a change to the voting system at 45 per cent and ever rising. Therefore, would it not be best to get on the ship and take charge of steering it than stand on the dock and be surprised when it leaves without you?
The damage that FPTP does to all parties, including the Conservatives, should have been realised in 1974 when Ted Heath won the popular vote but it was Harold Wilson that snatched the election and formed a minority government.
This July we were issued another stark reminder of the flaws of our voting system. According to the Electoral Reform Society, the Conservatives saw an MP elected for every 56,422 votes, whereas Labour saw an MP elected for every 23,615 votes. Less than half the Conservative figure. Even the Liberal Democrats, who historically suffer under FPTP, required fewer votes per MP (48,877) than the Conservatives.
The results of our recent election under FPTP are more egregious when you realised that, despite receiving the highest number of votes in three regions of England, (Eastern; South East; South West), the Conservatives did not achieve the highest number of MPs in any region.
An important case study here is London, where Conservatives ended up with just nine MPs out of 75. In the London Assembly election just two months earlier, while it is evident there were other factors at play, Conservatives returned a much stronger eight assembly members out of 25.
Electoral reform does not mean we need to adopt the same voting system we had for the European Parliament elections where local constituency links are lost. Certainly, neither does it mean adopting the system Welsh Labour have just introduced in the Welsh Senedd where political parties have obscene power over who gets a seat.
With Conservative experience at the table, democratic reform that respects our traditions and culture, maintains a constituency link but is fair to all parties and voters is possible.
There is a way to achieve a fairer, more democratic voting system for everyone – and it is time to acknowledge that it wouldn’t come at the cost of Conservative representation.