Labour MP Alex Sobel is chairing the new Fair Elections APPG (Alamy)
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Labour MP Alex Sobel, who is chairing the new All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections, has called on the Government to reform the UK voting system after this year’s General Election delivered the “most disproportionate result in British history”.
The Fair Elections APPG is launching on Monday with the publication of a report highlighting widespread distrust in British politics.
The APPG has more than 100 members, including Sobel, Green Party MP Ellie Chowns, and Lib Dem MP Lisa Smart. It has also been endorsed by former First Minister for Wales Mark Drakeford, former Conservative home secretary Amber Rudd and former Conservative Secretary of State for International Development Rory Stewart.
Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley, wrote in The House that the APPG was making a series of recommendations to ministers, including fundamental electoral reform.
Labour won 410 seats at the 4 July General Election, giving Prime Minister Keir Starmer a large House of Commons majority of 156. However, the party won only 33.7 per cent of the popular vote across the country.
The UK uses the first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system in Westminster general elections. This is a single-winner system, meaning candidates with the highest vote share win seats while defeated candidates win nothing — even if they finish a close second.
Campaigners for electoral reform in the UK argue FPTP is an unfair system as it results in some parties winning a disproportionate number of seats. For example, in July Reform UK received over 14 per cent of the national vote but got just five MPs.
“First-past-the-post has just delivered the most disproportionate result in British history: a landslide majority on just a third of the vote,” Sobel said.
“Most voters got neither the party they wanted in government nor the candidate they wanted as MP. It’s no wonder most people think their votes don’t shape our politics.”
The APPG has called on the Government to launch a national commission for electoral reform, with a mandate to recommend a “fair and democratic voting system”.
Sobel added that the APPG would also call for a clampdown on “donation loopholes around unincorporated associations, shell companies and proxy donors”.
“Dark money and hidden influence make people question who our politics really serves,” he said.
“Only one in eight people think campaign finance rules are transparent enough and just one in six think politics is safe from corruption. Regulatory gaps allow a growing influx of unaccountable donations, while the Electoral Commission has been stripped of the powers and independence it needs to enforce the rules.”
The APPG also wants ministers to require social media platforms to publish transparency reports about “legal but harmful” content, including disinformation, with Sobel saying that tech companies’ algorithms can currently promote disinformation “without public or regulatory scrutiny”.
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