At the County Council meeting on 17 July, Green County Cllr Gina Dowding proposed that the Council requests the Government to introduce legislation to enable future local elections to be held under a fairer voting system.
Gina’s motion outlined the distorted and undemocratic representation that results from First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) at a local level, and the fact that in other parts of the UK fairer systems are already in place at local elections.
Gina said during the meeting that she was not expecting the proposal to be controversial given the position of all parties on the council: like the Green Party, the Liberal Democrats already support proportional representation; Labour councillors had agreed to have a free vote; the Conservatives had made a big deal at the last meeting about losing out to being the main opposition group – referring to numbers of votes rather than number of councillors they got; and most importantly Reform UK and Nigel Farage have repeatedly called for proportional representation.
Reform’s official manifesto during the General Election last year included a pledge to hold a referendum on replacing FPTP with a proportional system, and even after Reform’s success in County elections in May this year under FPTP, Nigel Farage reaffirmed a commitment to introduce ‘an element of proportionality into UK elections.’
The motion did not pass, with all 53 Reform, all 9 Conservatives and 2 Labour Councillors voting against it.
Gina said afterwards:
“It was really disappointing and shocking to hear Reform UK councillors argue that the reason this motion came forward was due to councillors being bad losers. They have ditched a manifesto pledge at the very first test, showing that they have no principles and cannot be trusted to deliver what they promised.
“The current administration consistently refer to their strong mandate in Lancashire but they received only 36% of the vote on a 33% turn out meaning they have, in effect, only around 12% support from the electorate across Lancashire.”
More analysis can also be seen on our previous article after the local elections: Lancashire: 4th worst in the country for undemocratic election results
Full Motion:
Call to replace First Past the Post voting system currently used for local and general elections in the UK
Proposed: Councillor Dowding
Seconded: Councillor Almas Razakazi
Lancashire County Council notes
1.The County Council elections on May, using the First-past-the-post voting system resulted in:
- Reform UK: 63% seats with 36% votes;
- Conservatives: 10% seats with 21% votes;
- Labour Party 6%: seats with 19% votes;
- Liberal Democrats: 6% seats, with over 9% votes
- Green Party: 5 % seats with over 8% votes.
2. Only 10 of the 84 councillors were elected on an outright majority
3. Two thirds of voters in the County did not vote.
4. FPTP resulted in many ‘wasted’ votes and distorted representation.
5. Lancashire’s results in terms of fairness of representation were the 4th worst in the country.
6. Proportional representation voting systems such as Single Transferable Vote (STV) is already used for local elections in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, will introduce the ability for councils to choose their voting system between FPTP and STV.
Lancashire County Council believes that
- First-past-the-post voting is outdated and undemocratic.
- Lancashire needs a fairer voting system.
- Proportional representation in local elections would boost turn-out, make the Council more representative of its residents, and improve quality of its decision-making, thereby benefiting all Lancashire residents.
Lancashire County Council therefore resolves to ask the Chief Executive to:
- Write to Right Hon Angela Rayner MP, Secretary of State asking for legislation to be introduced so that Lancashire and beyond can use a fairer voting system for future local elections.