A recent report by the ERS found that, as well as 2024’s election being the most disproportionate vote, Labour and the Tories also recorded their lowest combined vote share (57.4 percent), with smaller parties and independents taking the rest.
Volatility, in what was largely a two-party system, “reached a new high,” the group argued.
Jess Garland, the director of research and policy at the ERS, said change now looks “unavoidable.”
“We’re in an era where the electoral system we’ve got is failing on its own terms,” she said. “It’s not giving the sort of stability that it’s supposed to do.”
Supporters of maintaining FPTP often cite the argument that it is simple, well-understood and produces stability — but try telling that to an electorate that’s had four prime ministers in the past five years alone. “That feeling of we are heading towards another election that throws out something very unusual, that feels very real,” Garland said.
A global trend of declining trust in democratic institutions only adds to the domestic arguments for change, campaigners believe. A right-wing party supporting electoral reform, and joining what has typically been a progressive cause, “adds another element to this moment in time,” Garland said.