London : More than 100 MPs are urging the prime minister to support a review of the UK’s voting system as parliament returns from its summer recess.
A cross-party group of MPs has backed an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, which is due to be debated in the Commons next week, calling for a national commission to investigate electoral reform.
Andy Burnham has previously expressed support for overhauling the voting system to make it more proportional, but this wasn’t listed in the 2024 Labour manifesto, which he has promised he’ll stick to.
Labour MP Alex Sobel is leading the charge, and 185 MPs have signed the amendment, including Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, amid growing calls for Westminster to move away from the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system used in general elections.
The government has given no indication it plans to change the voting system.
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.
“Andy remains strongly committed to electoral reform, and has indicated this is a matter for a future party manifesto, given a mandate would need to be secured for it.”
So what would electoral reform look like, and how could it change the make-up of parliament?
What is the current voting system?
The UK uses the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system to elect MPs.
In each of the 650 constituencies, voters choose a single candidate, and whoever wins the most votes becomes the local MP.
Each party has to select a candidate to represent them, which means voters could support the party but not like the candidate, or vice versa.
Critics argue the system can produce results that do not reflect how people voted nationally, because neither winning candidates nor governments need the backing of a majority of voters. Supporters, meanwhile, say it delivers clear outcomes and preserves a direct link between MPs and their constituencies.
In 2024, Labour won a landslide victory, securing 411 seats and 63% of all available seats in the Commons, despite receiving 33.7% of the national vote.
South West Norfolk MP Terry Jermy, who defeated former prime minister Liz Truss in 2024, currently has the lowest vote share in parliament.
Jermy won 26.7% of the vote share, with Truss receiving on 25.3%, so although Jermy became the MP, he only has a quarter of his constituents backing him.
Some argue that the current FPTP system can produce outcomes that appear disproportionate. For example, parties whose supporters are concentrated in particular areas can win more MPs than parties that receive a larger share of the overall vote but whose support is spread more evenly across the country.
This can benefit some parties, such as the Scottish National Party, which in the 2015 election took 95% of Scotland’s seats with only half of Scottish voters backing them.
What are the different voting options?
There are a variety of options that could be on the table for any potential changes to the voting system, if the review were to go ahead.
Sobel’s amendment calls for a national commission on electoral reform to be established to find a system that is “fair, representative and sustains public confidence”.
Smaller political parties, such as the Greens, have long called for proportional representation (PR) to be introduced, in which the distribution of seats corresponds closely to the proportion of total votes cast for each party.
For example, if a party gained 50% of the vote share, they would receive 325 seats in the UK parliament.
The issue was last put to voters in 2011, when 67.9% rejected replacing FPTP with the Alternative Vote (AV) system.
AV is not a form of PR. Instead, it is designed to reduce vote-splitting, where a candidate wins despite most voters backing other parties because those votes are divided among multiple rivals.
Several electoral systems do deliver proportional outcomes and could be considered if a review goes ahead.
Single Transferable Vote (STV): A form of PR in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. It’s already in use for the Northern Ireland Assembly and Scottish local elections.
Additional Member System (AMS): Used in the Scottish Parliament, voters are given two ballot papers – one for their constituency representative, elected using FPTP, and one for a party list.
Party List Proportional Representation:This style was used in the latest Welsh Senedd elections, where people vote for a party, rather than a single candidate. The number of seats each party gets depends on the proportion of votes it receives.
Supplementary Vote: Currently used in English mayoral elections, voters are limited to a first and second preference choice. One candidate needs more than 50% of first-preference votes to win; if not, the top two candidates continue to a next round where second-preference votes are counted.
Why do people want to change it?
The amendment sits within the government’s Representation of the People Bill, which includes plans to extend voting rights to 16-year-olds and tighten the donation rules around foreign donors.
Burnham has repeatedly backed electoral reform.
In 2026, he told ITV News the “real change moment” came after being elected Mayor of Greater Manchester under a supplementary vote system.
He said he was incentivised to knock on doors “because you may be able to get a second preference from somebody”.
Supporters of electoral reform argue FPTP is becoming less suited to an increasingly multi-party political landscape.
The Electoral Reform Society said the 2024 general election was the most disproportionate in UK history, with Labour and the Conservatives together winning less than 60% of the vote for the first time.
Its director of policy and research, Jessica Garland, said: “Multi-party politics under first-past-the-post – a system designed for two-party competition – is always going to lead to warped electoral outcomes.
“As the electoral landscape continues to shift, we are likely to see ever more disproportional results.
“The case for changing the voting system at Westminster has never been clearer.”
However, no specific alternative system is currently under consideration. Instead, it’s all eyes on whether the small amendment to the Representation of the People Bill could be the first step towards a wider review of how we vote in the future.
