On Thursday 10 July, the Labour government announced that as part of its English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, Supplementary Voting (SV) would be restored for electing metro mayors and police and crime commissioners.

Having originally been used in all elections for metro mayors since the creation of the first positions in 2000, the Conservatives replaced SV with First Past the Post (FPTP) in 2022. This was one change out of many via their Elections Act criticised as ‘gerrymandering’ due to their likely intent to make it easier for their party to win elections. Other changes in the Act included the adoption of FPTP for police and crime commissioner elections, voter identification requirements (a move predicted to have resulted in 1,100,000 fewer voters) and new government power over the previously independent Electoral Commission.

SV is a form of contingent voting whereby voters rank two candidates in order of first and second preference. If a first preference candidate is eliminated, their second preference votes for either of the two highest polling first preference candidates would be transferred, guaranteeing that the winning candidate would have the broad support of over half of voters.

Conversely, FPTP, the system currently used for electing Members of Parliament, only allows voters to choose one candidate. As winning candidates do not need to secure at least half of votes cast, this often leads to an artificial two-party system and a spoiler effect where voting for a candidate most reflective of your values can lead to the election of an ideological opponent through split opposition.

As the British electorate reject the two-party status quo out of their desire for change, we have seen the distortive effect that FPTP can have if voters do not choose ‘the lesser of two evils’. Last May saw the inaugural elections for the metro mayors of Hull and East Yorkshire, and Greater Lincolnshire. These saw major gains for Reform UK, with former boxer Luke Campbell and former Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns being elected to those offices respectively, albeit with 36% and 42% of votes cast. If SV had been used, we could have seen the election of Liberal Democrat Mike Ross or (perhaps ironically) Conservative Rob Waltham instead, or at least the actual winning candidates win broad popular support.

The restoration of SV is a welcome change. Here in West Yorkshire, it may return in time for the next mayoral election in 2028. However, this does not go far enough. FPTP grossly distorts the intentions of the British electorate, as was demonstrated during last year’s general election. Only two out of every five voters voted for a successful candidate, turnout dipped to below 60%, and the winning party won nearly two-thirds of seats on one-third of the vote.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill does not address FPTP anywhere else, and the government seems unwilling to address it despite majorities of the British people and their own MPs favouring electoral reform. With the argument that FPTP creates strong and stable single-party government having been severely undermined in recent years, no matter argument can be made than acknowledging that FPTP is not an ideal system.

Today (11 July), the main business of Parliament is Private Members’ Bills. Among the proposed legislation on the roster is the Election (Proportional Representation) Bill, proposing the replacement of FPTP with proportional representation for UK general elections and English local elections. Although it may not be debated today due to the sheer number of bills ahead of it, it will receive its second reading at some point in the future.

Many positive changes have come about through Private Members’ Bills including same-sex marriage, no-fault divorce and the abolition of the death penalty, and it is possible for governments to adopt them.

If you want to help to bring about electoral reform, you can write to your MP and ask them to support this bill. You can find out who your MP is and how to contact them at www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/.

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