Andy Burnham will face an immediate test of his backing for electoral reform in his first week in parliament as prime minister, with almost 100 Labour MPs supporting a bid for a new national commission. Burnham, a longtime advocate of electoral reform, will be asked to support the new commission into ditching first past the post in his first 100 days as prime minister. MPs have said the commission must report before the next election and hope to put electoral reform in Labour’s next manifesto.
Number 10 said Burnham remained committed to electoral reform in Labour’s next manifesto but stopped short of backing the new commission. New polling of MPs by YouGov suggests the change is now supported by a majority in the Commons. Of those polled, 53% of MPs said they supported a review into first past the post – the current system of voting.
An amendment to launch the commission has been backed by 185 MPs, including a number of former ministers and supporters of the previous prime minister, Keir Starmer. The amendment has been tabled to the representation of the people bill, which returns to parliament for its remaining stages on 2 September. A Labour source said: “The representation of the people bill has been designed to deliver our manifesto commitments on votes at 16 and strengthen political donation rules to guard against foreign interference, and that’s what the government is prioritising.
Overall, MPs have signed from eight parties, as well as independents. Signatories also include MPs who have recently become ministers and ministerial aides – including the energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, communities minister Florence Eshalomi and the prime minister’s parliamentary private secretary and close ally Jo Platt. However, the newly appointed frontbench MPs may by convention withdraw support for backbench amendments once parliament returns.
A new commission would not require legislation – meaning the amendment itself may end up out of scope of the bill. But MPs intend to use the amendment as a way of signalling to the prime minister the breadth of support for swifter reform. A national commission could consider a range of other proportional voting systems to replace first past the post, the current system for a general election in the UK which means the winners of the most votes in each constituency are elected.
Other systems are used across the UK, including the Scottish parliament, the Welsh parliament and mayoral votes. In Scottish and Welsh elections, there are votes for a candidate and for a party, so additional members can be elected from a list alongside constituency representatives. In the recent Greater Manchester mayoralty, voters were given a first and second choice.
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