Labour conference votes overwhelmingly to replace FPTP with PR

Although the party leadership does not approve the change, the conference has backed a motion which supports a “fairer proportional electoral system.”

The Labour Party conference has voted overwhelmingly to replace the first past the post electoral system with proportional representation.

Although the party leadership does not approve the change, the conference has backed a motion which supports a “fairer proportional electoral system.”

The composite motion stated that the UK’s political system has “catastrophically failed to represent people’s wishes, needs and votes”. It argued that first-past-the-post does “long-term damage to the health of our democracy”.

The passing of the motion comes after Unite and UNISON – the UK’s two largest unions – both backed electoral reform, joining other Labour-affiliated unions including ASLEF and the TSSA.

At a packed Labour4PR rally yesterday evening, the likes of Andy Burnham and John McDonnell threw their support behind changing the electoral system.

Stephen Kinnock sought to tackle the myths against PR, namely that it would allow extremist parties into power, by asking people to have faith in their abilities to defeat extremism through arguments in Parliament rather than continue to hold on to an outdated and unjust electoral system.

He told the audience: “PR creates a culture of much better decision making and working across parties in order to improve quality of decisions made.”

NEC member Luke Akehurst  told those in attendance: “This isn’t about right or left…this is about justice in our political system”.

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